Lost: 200,000 Tonnes Of Rice

[marshbags]

Bangkok Post, 14-04-2008

Lost: 200,000 tonnes of rice

Government sources said on Monday $100 million worth of rice has gone missing from national warehouses.

At the same time, rice farmers who still have stocks have openly hoarded the staple, refusing to sell their reserves in a market where prices continue to rise.

Official Thai News Agency, quoting Benjamas Kotenongbua a Bank of Thailand official "deeply acquainted with the rice trade" reported that increasing rice prices in the local market have prompted numerous farmers and middlemen to slow, stall or simply stop selling paddy rice to millers, a move which eventually affects exporters.

Ms Benjamas said a total of 200,000 tonnes of rice is missing from warehouses nationwide. Damages were estimated at approximately 3.2 billion baht, about US$101.1 million.

Unquote :-

Ref url for the complete fairy story :-

http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/tops...s.php?id=127108

I,d stick with the middlemen and Government officialls ( same same from my take ) on this one, not the farmers, i mean US$101.1 million, Jesus

The thieving B******s

It was predictable, needless to say of course, from day one of the rise and rise of the commodity.

Yet another money spinner for the choosen few.

This quantity could no doubt feed a good few of the less well off that are struggling with their incomes and rising food prices,

MR SAMAK and COHERTS

marshbags

Edited April 14, 2008 by marshbags

[teej]

"Lost"????!?!!

Thailand, gotta love it....

[pampal]

They should call the Lost and Found

[Gravelrash]

Quite easy to misplace really. Surely you are not infering....

[slapout]

The warehouses used for storage of various comodities here seem to run into this problem on a regular basis. Lamyai went missing, although boxes for storeing were still in warehouse in perfect stacks. Rice is missing and recently the govt said they were going to put guards on warehouse property to stop this type of thing. The trails seem to point toward China, but its like other investigations here, it will fade away with the sunset and the trunk of cash. One poster awhile back mentioned the owers of warehouses may have a connection to some of the Ag ministry personal. It will require better investigation and reporting of same, than has been observed in the past. 200,000 tons at 1200 us / ton and that is confirmed missing. How much more is gone and has not been discovered yet? When are the public and the govt watchdogs going to have their fill of this and put a stop to it?

[Thai at Heart]

The warehouses used for storage of various comodities here seem to run into this problem on a regular basis. Lamyai went missing, although boxes for storeing were still in warehouse in perfect stacks. Rice is missing and recently the govt said they were going to put guards on warehouse property to stop this type of thing. The trails seem to point toward China, but its like other investigations here, it will fade away with the sunset and the trunk of cash. One poster awhile back mentioned the owers of warehouses may have a connection to some of the Ag ministry personal. It will require better investigation and reporting of same, than has been observed in the past. 200,000 tons at 1200 us / ton and that is confirmed missing. How much more is gone and has not been discovered yet? When are the public and the govt watchdogs going to have their fill of this and put a stop to it?

That would be assuming that it ever made it into the warehouse at all. And how forward thinking to put a guard on buildings holding 100mn+ USD of product. At 180 baht a day with a bottle of sangsom and a truncheon, I am sure he would do a fine job.

Whatever the weight of every individual sack may be, it would take hundreds (possibly thousands) of truckloads to move it around. The police seem pretty adept at catching a pick up on the road, one cannot simply move 200,000 mt of anything around without someone knowing about it.

Safest way would be that it was paid for and never delivered and has no doubt already left the country a long while ago.

[PhilHarries]

Forget sacks! At 50kg per sack you'd be shifting 4 million sacks .

My guess is that the rice never existed, or not in the storage facilities, except on paper and invoices .

[Crushdepth]

Rice is missing and recently the govt said they were going to put guards on warehouse property to stop this type of thing.

They don't have guards already? :-) Most likely, the amount of rice going into the warehouse was simply 'overstated', various people got 'commission' on the extra rice that wasn't actually there and everyone was happy until someone wanted to count it. Looks like agriculture has finally caught up with the construction industry :-)

[Galong]

Forget sacks! At 50kg per sack you'd be shifting 4 million sacks .

My guess is that the rice never existed, or not in the storage facilities, except on paper and invoices .

Now THAT makes more sense. I too find it difficult to believe that a quantity of rice as large as that can disappear. Even if the 'boss' wasn't watching, it would take a long time and a lot of man-power to move it. Certainly they couldn't possibly be that incompetent.

[Thai at Heart]

Forget sacks! At 50kg per sack you'd be shifting 4 million sacks .

My guess is that the rice never existed, or not in the storage facilities, except on paper and invoices .

Now THAT makes more sense. I too find it difficult to believe that a quantity of rice as large as that can disappear. Even if the 'boss' wasn't watching, it would take a long time and a lot of man-power to move it. Certainly they couldn't possibly be that incompetent.

Depends on your definition of incompetence. I would believe that they have succeeded handsomely in their chosen line of work.

[john b good]

Forget sacks! At 50kg per sack you'd be shifting 4 million sacks .

My guess is that the rice never existed, or not in the storage facilities, except on paper and invoices .

That's almost certainly what has happened.

Truck pulls up at the godown (truck is possibly carrying a load of rice, maybe not carrying anything)

Driver goes in, gives the storeman a delivery docket, storeman signs receipt of delivery, driver gives storeman a 1,000 baht note, storeman say thanks and wais driver who wais back then gets into truck and drives to the next gowdown.

Process is repeated until the 200,000 tonnes that was never delivered is found to be missing.

Why is it that no one is the least bit surprised by all this. TIT

[Royale]

Bangkok Post, 14-04-2008

Lost: 200,000 tonnes of rice

Government sources said on Monday $100 million worth of rice has gone missing from national warehouses.

At the same time, rice farmers who still have stocks have openly hoarded the staple, refusing to sell their reserves in a market where prices continue to rise.

Official Thai News Agency, quoting Benjamas Kotenongbua a Bank of Thailand official "deeply acquainted with the rice trade" reported that increasing rice prices in the local market have prompted numerous farmers and middlemen to slow, stall or simply stop selling paddy rice to millers, a move which eventually affects exporters.

Ms Benjamas said a total of 200,000 tonnes of rice is missing from warehouses nationwide. Damages were estimated at approximately 3.2 billion baht, about US$101.1 million.

Unquote :-

Ref url for the complete fairy story :-

http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/tops...s.php?id=127108

I,d stick with the middlemen and Government officialls ( same same from my take ) on this one, not the farmers, i mean US$101.1 million, Jesus

The thieving B******s

It was predictable, needless to say of course, from day one of the rise and rise of the commodity.

Yet another money spinner for the choosen few.

This quantity could no doubt feed a good few of the less well off that are struggling with their incomes and rising food prices,

MR SAMAK and COHERTS

marshbags

What we need is Maigo6 to tell us what happened, he know's EVERYTHING about Thailand, no doubt he'll say "why couldn't it have been low life Farangs who took it?" Come on Maigo6 we need to know what happend to the rice? Where are you when we need you?!!!!

[TheDon]

Thats way too much rice to go missing, it would take a bloody long time to steal. I say the paperwork like someone mentioned previous is wrong

[Ricardo]

Funny how it only goes missing, now that the sale-price has doubled, from what it was when the government acquired it ? !

And I thought the government had repeatedly assured the nation, over the past few weeks, that there wasn't any missing quantity of rice, of this order ? Or are we now supposed to forget the previous 'line'.

[PhilHarries]

What we need is Maigo6 to tell us what happened, he know's EVERYTHING about Thailand, no doubt he'll say "why couldn't it have been low life Farangs who took it?" Come on Maigo6 we need to know what happend to the rice? Where are you when we need you?!!!!

Are you suggesting that those pesky baggage handlers from Manchester airport had a hand in it?

Anyway relax it's only rice, in a few years they'll have spent nuclear fuel rods to play with .

[sriracha john]

[seagull]

Look at those tiny little monsters !

[PhilHarries]

Look at those tiny little monsters !

They look suspiciously like farang ants to me .

[cclub75]

Forget sacks! At 50kg per sack you'd be shifting 4 million sacks .

My guess is that the rice never existed, or not in the storage facilities, except on paper and invoices .

Sure but, eventually... it's the same !

4 millions virtual sacks. Or 4 millions sacks stolen... Just a difference of method.

The only certainty : Some people made a lot of money out of it.

[seagull]

Look at those tiny little monsters !

They look suspiciously like farang ants to me .

Nah ! These are black ones. Farang ants are the red ones (not in picture).

[Ricardo]

Look at those tiny little monsters !

They look suspiciously like farang ants to me .

Nah ! These are black ones. Farang ants are the red ones (not in picture).

Aren't they the Red-Chinese ants ? Than again, if the rice really has gone over the borders to China, who better to arrange for the transport ? !

[sriracha john]

UPDATE.... more and more missing rice...

More rice vanishes as PM vows tighter stock checks

Another 288 tonnes of paddy from government warehouses have gone missing, according to Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan. The missing paddy comes on top of 13,000 tonnes of milled rice estimated to be missing from the 2.1 million tonnes of official stockpiles. Mingkwan acknowledged yesterday that high rice prices had led to increased theft from government warehouses and fraud by millers seeking to turn rapid profits. Mingkwan shrugged off reports that PM Samak wanted to set up his own inspection teams to audit government stockpiles. Mingkwan said that since taking office in February, he had established a committee to monitor stockpiles every 15 days. ''It's good to help recheck the Commerce Ministry's investigation work to make sure that the rice stocks, which are owned by the people, remain intact,'' he said. Samak announced his decision on Thursday, ordering the PM's Office to form a 1,000-member team to monitor whether government rice now held on behalf of the state by private millers remained intact.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/14Jun2008_biz24.php

[sriracha john]

Related posts on how all this missing rice may end up with Commerce Minister Mingkwan resigning from the Cabinet:

Starting here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?s=...t&p=2030284

[learnthaipodcast]

Well I guess someone will get lucky and find the 200.000 tonnes in their backyard..

[ajarnmark]

MR SAMAK and COHERTS

marshbags

Are you hired by Fox News?

[roygsd]

Bangkok Post, 14-04-2008

Lost: 200,000 tonnes of rice

Government sources said on Monday $100 million worth of rice has gone missing from national warehouses.

At the same time, rice farmers who still have stocks have openly hoarded the staple, refusing to sell their reserves in a market where prices continue to rise.

Ms Benjamas said a total of 200,000 tonnes of rice is missing from warehouses nationwide. Damages were estimated at approximately 3.2 billion baht, about US$101.1 million.

Quote

Peraps the headline should be:

sticky rice attract sticky fingers........................................... guaranteed no officials will be held accountable, and business as usual

roy gsd