Guaranteed Rice Price 2009

[anthoma]

Tomorrow we will start to harvest our 20 rai with hom mali rice. We registered for the goverment guaranteed price program and we heard earlier this year that the guaranteed price on hom mali would be 15 bath pr kilo 15% drye. You sell to the mill for whatever price and the rest you will get payd from the goverment through BAAC.

Today my wife come home and tells me that it dosent work like that. The goverment will now support every farmer with 325 bath pr rai of what they registered for. The lokal price on wet rice direct from paddy is now 10 bath pr. kilo.

What happend to the 15 bath pr kilo deal? Anybody know?

[Gary A]

Tomorrow we will start to harvest our 20 rai with hom mali rice. We registered for the goverment guaranteed price program and we heard earlier this year that the guaranteed price on hom mali would be 15 bath pr kilo 15% drye. You sell to the mill for whatever price and the rest you will get payd from the goverment through BAAC.

Today my wife come home and tells me that it dosent work like that. The goverment will now support every farmer with 325 bath pr rai of what they registered for. The lokal price on wet rice direct from paddy is now 10 bath pr. kilo.

What happend to the 15 bath pr kilo deal? Anybody know?

Sorry, this is Thailand. The middlemen will get 60 percent and the big farmers will get the remaining 40 percent. The small farmers will get nothing more than the middlemen are willing to give them. The government is obscenely corrupt and there is nothing the poor people can do about it.

[gosompoi]

The guarantee is designed and stated to insure 30% - 40% profit for middle men and mills. It is written with protecting the interests of those who have the most invested and profit the most from the process which is not the poor farmer.

[somo]

It was the same with the guaranteed price of cassava last year.

The mills offered whatever price they wanted claiming the quota had been fulfilled but then had friends who claimed the subsidy instead. The whole thing got out of hand so the gov. scrapped it and are starting a new schem in the New year.

How that will work is anybodys guess but starting it in the dry season when prices tend to be higher anyway seems odd. The market price in my area is above the subsidy price of 1.70/kilo but that may be because the 2 main mill owners in the area are fighting each other in some election so trying to play the good guy for now. They were the people cheating the farmers last year but now they want their votes.

[pnustedt]

The lokal price on wet rice direct from paddy is now 10 bath pr. kilo.

Dry the rice before selling - place it in the road during sunshine on some of that blue netting - price in Sisaket is Bt15.50/kilo.

[anthoma]

My wife went to the local BAAC office yesterday but they didnt know anything. So we harvested our rice yesterdag and sold it direct from the paddy for 11 bath pr kilo. Price for dried rice here is 12,50 pr kilo. We didnt bother to dry it consider it also loose som weight when drying.

[gotlost]

Price is 16.00 bt a kilo in Kap Choeng.

[finner]

Never heard of rice being bought without first being dried. If it is mixed with dry rice and stored the whole dam_n thing will start growing in the warehouse. You are paying someone 5 Baht per kilo to dry your rice for you. When harvested, the grain should be almost dry anyway with almost no difference in weight to the finished product. It's been wet in your area so it would take a day or 2 in the sun to qualify you for the 16 Baht.

[slapout]

If the rice is left standing in the field to dry and then cut by hand (many still do this) then the kennels shatter out as its cut and handled. Thus they cut it wet and wait for it to dry for hand thrashing. The moisture content at this stage is probably around 13 % depending on humidity, drying time etc. Most of the local, small farmers do not know moisture content and applying same to finished product weight, may be a tad too involved, so the middle man says and does whatever he can get by with. The combines being used are archaic in the best cases that I have observed and they are cutting the grain while moisture content is too high. The shattering of grain and possibly the throw over thru the machine may be the reason for this practice. Wet and dry grain can be mixed but it must be moved (grain elevators do this continually) to get the mixture/moisture content down and prevent mold, sprouting, spoilage etc. That is my take on the situation and I would like to hear other peoples opinions/knowledge on this as I have tried in vain to get answers from Thai farmers.

[MrMr]

I just heard from my GF that in the region of Suwannakuha (Isaan) 12 kg of sticky rice only sold for 70 Baht ...

Edited November 3, 2009 by MrMr

[Somrak]

I just heard from my GF that in the region of Suwannakuha (Isaan) 12 kg of sticky rice only sold for 70 Baht ...

That's the price for "sticky rice"!

We didnt bother to dry it consider it also loose som weight when drying.

If the price is OK my wife does the same. They will lower the price about 10% anyway.

Edited November 4, 2009 by Somrak

[finner]

Never heard of rice being bought without first being dried.

OK OK, I wuz wrong. The subject just never came up as we were sitting around the table out at the ole rice farm sipping our mint juleps. Apparently rice IS sold wet and gets 10 Baht/ kg. Usually done by farmers with no storage, no drying area, big debts and also by falangs.

Not too bad actually when the published price is 16 Baht but the middleman is only paying 12 Baht for dried rice. Last year's rice is now going for 16 Baht even from the middleman.

[anthoma]

Here in Ubon they always operate with prices pr 120 kilo. So if the price is 1600 bath that will not give us 16 bath pr kilo, but 1600 divide with 120 kg = 13,33 bath pr kilo. Every week i pass a lot of merchant and rice factories here in Ubon and i never seen prices higher than 1600 bath. But that is only 13,33 bath pr kilo when you divide it with 120. I wonder why here inn Ubon we get so low prices on the rice when other places in Thailand they according too this topic pay 16 bath pr kilo.

[Nio]

I am not a farmer but all this knowledge about rice is very interesting.

How many kilos of rice do you get per each (1) rai?

Thank you

[finner]

I never stop asking questions because information is never volunteered here in Thailand. Lots of times you'll get wrong answers just so they don't look stupid which makes things even worse. That's why I like this website, you quite often get the right answers after a few guys bang heads for a while.

Anyway, when you ask about the price of rice, remember yours is sticky rice, not the Hom Mali (Jasmine) that is grown west of you in Surin and therefore sells for a bit less. The top quality Hom Mali right now is last years crop which is 16 Baht, this year's crop, dried is going for 12 Baht and this year's crop, wet, is going for 10 Baht. This year's dried crop will be over 20 Baht in 6 months, so I am told by "She who must be listened to". Altogether, 13.3B that you're getting sounds OK to me.

You know how long it took me to get that info? About 6 months. And now you're talking about dividing by 120? OK, I'll ask again and try to get back to you this year. Then of course there is the price guarantee that you mentioned of B325 per rai that I don't think I even want to understand.

Good luck Anthoma..........

[anthoma]

He he. Yes i also aske questions all the time but i find it very difficult to get som answers. In april this year we bought hom mali seed from goverment, put fertilizer and tried to take good care of our ricepaddis. Result? 150 kilo pr Rai. I dont understand what we are doing wrong. Other farmers here get 3-400 kilo pr Rai almost not putting fertilizer.. I asked my girlfriend in april how much seeds we need to put (spray)pr Rai. She didnt know and it was impossible for me to get here to ask somebody. We put 5 kilo pr Rai which i early could see was not enough. No she like to buy seed from this years harvest to put next year and i ask here again how much we should put. Again she dont know and when i ask here to go and ask somebody that got good harvest she just answer me that they dont know. I dont understand this. Shes not interested in learning. To proud to ask. After big arguement today im tempted to just forget about the rice and rent out our paddies next year. I dont expect big profit from rice, more like a hobby, altough it would be nice til get the money back and maybe improve the harvest from year to year but how is that possible when we not can get answers to our questions?

[gotlost]

I'm in Kap Choeng my wifes family have 130 rai they start by raising a nursery and then transplant to the main rai's. This is all done by hand. They use good fertilizer not the cheap government stuff. They yield about 400 to 600 kilo a rai.

[Somrak]

..... they start by raising a nursery and then transplant to the main rai's. This is all done by hand. They use good fertilizer .....They yield about 400 to 600 kilo a rai.

Anthoma: Result? 150 kilo pr Rai

I sinc too that gotlost has the answer for you. A lot of worke done by hand.

[anthoma]

Yes, we tried that last year. We transplantet riceseedlings by hand to the paddies. Cost me almost 30 000 bath to do that work. Result last year was 250 kg pr rai so we did not get the money back from all that work. 50% of the farmers here just spray the seeds now and they are getting double of our harvest. My expences this year including harvest was 30 000 bath ( 8000 bath for tractor 2 times, 12000 bath for seeds and fertilizer and 10000 for harvesting) and we just balanced selling the rice for 11 bath pr kilo. What i think is that if we could improve the yield to 250-300 kg pr rai, we would aktually make a little bit money.

[finner]

Anthoma, it's getting harder to find people to do this kind of work now and a lot of farmers are buying rice planters and harvesters instead. Check out You Tube for some very interesting videos of these machines. I'm not saying you should buy one but Kubota and Yanmar are selling as many as they can get in from Japan.

My old girl wants to buy a harvester but I told her that so many other farmers are buying them that it should be easy to rent one next year.

For a tractor, I bought 2 from the auction at about B50K each, 2 wheel drive, 24 hp complete with "rotarys". A lot of people prefer 4wd and 30-35 hp and these sell for about B150K with rotary. Not only can you use them on your farm but can rent them to your neighbours and have fun playing with them too. Just have to be careful what you buy.........

[zzaa09]

The guarantee is designed and stated to insure 30% - 40% profit for middle men and mills. It is written with protecting the interests of those who have the most invested and profit the most from the process which is not the poor farmer.

Agricultural community collectives {especially rice} are growing in many regions within the country. Hopefully, in time, hard working communities will have their own say so as to their livlihoods. Time for the revolution.

[finner]

Just got some more info from the old girl, she plants seedlings by hand, about B300 per rai for workers and gets about 500 Kg per rai

[anthoma]

Yes we are thinking about getting at tractor. We have about 70 rai. 20 rai ricepaddies, 20 rai cashewnuttrees, 20 rai palmoils (1 year old) and about 10 rai we put cassava. Here in Ubon i not se much secondhand tractors. To pay 5-600 000 for å new tractor with tools i think is too much as long as we no after 4 years still not make any money on the farm. But 150 K for a secondhand tractor could be an option.

We dont have any of these riceharvesters in our district yet, but im shure they soon will come I hear they take 5-600 bath pr rai and that would be cheeper than harvesting by hand.

Wow. 300 bath pr rai for planting the seedlings sounds very good. Last year we put rice on about 30 rai (borrowded father in laws paddies too) and payed about 1000 bath pr rai to plant the seedlings. But that includet putting the seeds in 2-3 paddies, take up the seedlings after one month and carry them out on the fields and then put them down in the soil. Well 1000 bath pr rai should be profitable if your guarantied that the yield was 100 kg (10 bath pr kilo) more pr rai then just spraying the seeds.

[finner]

We don't pay anyone to prepare the seeds and seedlings because it's sort of a community effort and everyone benefits. The government gives about 200Kg free seed every year if you go to the local meetings and put your name on a list. Sometimes it's good quality but sometimes it's not. There's a very good video on you tube about how to make the seedlings but in our area they just throw the seeds in the paddy and keep them wet for about 3 weeks.

When I said B300/ rai, that's only for transplanting the seedlings.

[OOTAI]

For a tractor, I bought 2 from the auction at about B50K each, 2 wheel drive, 24 hp complete with "rotarys". A lot of people prefer 4wd and 30-35 hp and these sell for about B150K with rotary. Not only can you use them on your farm but can rent them to your neighbours and have fun playing with them too. Just have to be careful what you buy.........

finner

Could you please tell me where tha auction was held that you bought the tractors from and who conducted the auction. I am trying to find somewhere to buy a cheap second hand tractor (to play with before maybe buying a new one). At B50K each I would have bought the 2 of them as well.

Thanks

[finner]

Anthoma, I found this on the internet from Bangkok Post. Just some more rice info to help confuse you even more but I think it may have something to do with the price guarantee you mentioned earlier.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/econom...elp-rice-market

Ootai

The auctions are held approximately every month at JSSR. There are other auctions but this one I know quite well. There is another one coming up the end of this month. Hang on and I'll try to get the website for you......

OK here it is:

http://www.jssr.co.th/cgi-bin/eng/home.php

One thing I like about the website is that you can go back to the last auction and see what prices everything sold for.

If you go to the one at KM32 the first day, the 27th, I'll be there. The other two auctions at KM 35 are for more serious bidders, contractors, businessmen, and exporters.

Best thing is to go there a day or 2 before the auction to test out whatever you are interested in.

Edited November 18, 2009 by finner

[OOTAI]

Ootai

The auctions are held approximately every month at JSSR. There are other auctions but this one I know quite well. There is another one coming up the end of this month. Hang on and I'll try to get the website for you......

OK here it is:

http://www.jssr.co.th/cgi-bin/eng/home.php

One thing I like about the website is that you can go back to the last auction and see what prices everything sold for.

If you go to the one at KM32 the first day, the 27th, I'll be there. The other two auctions at KM 35 are for more serious bidders, contractors, businessmen, and exporters.

Best thing is to go there a day or 2 before the auction to test out whatever you are interested in.

finner

Thanks for the reply. i had visited the JSSR site before but didn't know that there are 2 and I must have always gone to the KM35 site because everything I seen looked very expensive so when you said that you bought the 2 tractors for 50K each i thought it must have been some other auction. I have since revisited the site (through your link) and can now see the KM32 site does have more what I'm looking for. At the moment I am in Australia so won't be there for the auction on the 27th. I will be in Thailand over xmas (for a month) so if they have an auction while I'm there I'll try and get along.

Thanks again