Rice-Pledging Scheme Meeting Goals: Minister

[Lite Beer]

Rice-pledging scheme meeting goals: minister

The Nation on Sunday

BANGKOK: -- Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom said 1.5 million tonnes of stockpiled rice has been released since early 2012 and that over 1.7 million tonnes would be sold by the year-end.

Boonsong affirmed the government's commitment to the rice-pledging scheme as a way of elevating farmers' quality of life, telling a state weekly TV show yesterday the remaining 6-7 million tonnes of rice in its stockpile would be sold next year via government-to-government agreements.

Because there were various contracts and rice to deliver, he insisted that all deliveries be completed by the end of 2013. Rice remaining in stockpiles would pose no problems as it needed food security, hence it had to stock rice for incidents such as natural disasters.

He said the programme would be ready to take more rice because the ministry had four rice-selling methods: government-to-government deals; auctions; the agricultural futures exchange system; and other channels including supplying state agencies in need of rice such as the Corrections Department and the Defence Ministry.

To prevent corruption, the scheme would deploy more representatives to witness rice purchases, he said. Currently, one farmer, one miller and one official were required to witness a purchase, but in future there would be two from each group plus two police officers. Security cameras would also be installed at all rice-buying points, Boonsong said.

Fiscal Policy Research Institute Foundation director Kanit Sangsubhan said the government had not moved to sell all the rice quickly for fear of lowering the price, hence they let other countries sell rice first. He said Thailand then proceeded with the government-to-government agreements, which allowed it to sell rice at better prices. He said that prices had increased by 6 per cent for Thai jasmine rice and 10 per cent for Thai white rice - while the price of Vietnamese rice had only risen by 1 per cent.

-- The Nation 2012-10-14

[jerrysteve]

SCHEME or SCHEMERS is definetly the right word

[osiboy]

mai kowjai,.........they could'nt sell it before cos it was too expensive for the market as the price was fixed,...now it has gone up 6 & 10 % they now find that they can sell it ,...........ok,........makes sense in a sort of thai-way ...........NOT !

[rubl]

Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom said 1.5 million tonnes of stockpiled rice has been released since early 2012 and that over 1.7 million tonnes would be sold by the year-end.

How come the figures released never seem to add up or relate. I'm just looking for simple facts like:

- government stock at start of rice price pledging scheme 2011-10-07

- rice pledged and stocked till now

- rice released from 2011-10-07 till now (as in sold to exporters)

- rice involved in gov2gov deals

- rice stock at this moment

- where is THB 280 billion out of 400 which didn't reach farmers in the period from 2011-10-07 till now?

Instead I find:

2012-10-13

"The premier emphasised that her government did sell rice through government-to-government deals to other countries including some ASEAN countries. Initially, more than 8 million tonnes of rice have been delivered. The details, however, could not be disclosed."

http://www.thaivisa....e/#entry5750973

2012-10-13

"The Commerce Ministry plans to release 500,000 tonnes of jasmine rice upon the urging of exporters amid high demand in the world market."

http://www.thaivisa....f-jasmine-rice/

2012-10-10

"According to a report by the Thai Rice Exporters Association, the Kingdom's rice export volume dropped by a significant 44.56 per cent to 5.04 million tonnes during the first nine months of this year. Export value plunged by 34 per cent to Bt93 billion, or by 35.7 per cent in dollar terms to US$3 billion, during the first eight months."

http://www.thaivisa....cheme-thailand/

2012-10-04

"The government yesterday announced it has sold as much as 7 million tonnes of rice to other countries - mostly under government-to-government deals - but it declined to discuss the export figures in detail.

... and ...

Meanwhile, exporters say there have been no government-to-government orders, which could pull down export prices for the remaining months of this year."

http://www.thaivisa....thai-govt-says/

[fareastguy]

So at the moment 3 people share a graft, a farmer, a miller & an official.

Now that will rise to 8 people, two of each of the above with 2 police extra.

This scheme is about to get a whole lot more expensive, hope Yingluk's got deep pockets ?

[OzMick]

Those would be "own goals" I assume.

[rubl]

Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom said 1.5 million tonnes of stockpiled rice has been released since early 2012 and that over 1.7 million tonnes would be sold by the year-end.

All those millions of tons of rice. I'm still counting, but confusing not resolved yet.

IF already 1.5m tonnes released (to exporters probably?) AND 500,00 tonnes Jasmine rice to be released soon AND Thailand normally exports about 200,000-250,000 tonnes of jasmine rice a month (according to Charoen Laothamatas, vice president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association) CONCLUDE export really down?

TREA: only Jasmine already 200,000-250,000 monthly (i.e. 2.4-3.0m a year) without counting other type of rice

MoC: 1.5m already, expect total of 1.7m this year

(insert a very confused smiley here)

[Thrilla]

If they're selling it why are they looking for more storage facilities ?

[slapout]

This must be an example of 'horizontel nonintedrgrated management' that the PM has ordered followed.

We have secret govt. to govt. deals, unknown amount in storage, the hunt for new, larger storage facilities, dealing with a trading group whose past record follows a pyramid scam, bonified exporters deny all govt. figures, acknowledged corruption within the program, several ministries rooting in this specific trough, and they are requesting more funds to continue this proclaimed "good deal"

The recent reported 18 billion impounded in Hong Kong as suspected corrupt fund landering (which no one in government seems to know anything about) is probably one reason the "anti laundering bill" is being delayed/misplaced. It might be the additional storage facilities are needed to store all the mountains of hard cash misplaced from the various ongoing programs to help the Thai people.

[Thai at Heart]

Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom said 1.5 million tonnes of stockpiled rice has been released since early 2012 and that over 1.7 million tonnes would be sold by the year-end.

All those millions of tons of rice. I'm still counting, but confusing not resolved yet.

IF already 1.5m tonnes released (to exporters probably?) AND 500,00 tonnes Jasmine rice to be released soon AND Thailand normally exports about 200,000-250,000 tonnes of jasmine rice a month (according to Charoen Laothamatas, vice president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association) CONCLUDE export really down?

TREA: only Jasmine already 200,000-250,000 monthly (i.e. 2.4-3.0m a year) without counting other type of rice

MoC: 1.5m already, expect total of 1.7m this year

(insert a very confused smiley here)

Jasmine exports only make up up about 2mn tonnes of the total. The rest is more commodity product.

The whole premise of what they are attempting has some merit, if there is a shortage, but from what i have read, India and China are full up with their own crops. Manipulating a market like this us very difficult because it is so commoditized.

Hom Mali goes for a marginal premium over other types, but Thai total exports at best of 10 mn tonnes only constitute 2 or 3 percent if total global rice production. It's nice that Thailand has a surplus, but i don't think they can hold the market to ransom with anything other than hom mali.

To 99 percent it's just a staple food, not a premium product, and with everyone full up this year, the price won't budge.

For me, the government may as well enter the market as a miller to handle all government business. They can keep the buyers honest by setting the minimum price, let the private market have it's sales, but having to rely on private enterprise to even mill the product means there is only an oligpoly business.

Edited October 14, 2012 by Thai at Heart

[softgeorge]

Saw this on Australian T.V. Was being said that the government is paying the farmers exagerated prices for the rice, 500 US per tonne. The farmers are cultivating as much as they can as fast as they can to get the money which is resulting in a poorer quality of rice. The government now has massive stockpiles of rice that it can't sell on the international market at thier exagerated prices because countries are turning to other S/E Asian countries for thier rice which is apparently better quality at the moment and cheaper.

The current affairs reporter was saying that Thailand has shot itself in the foot. Maybe the international media have it wrong.

[Thai at Heart]

Saw this on Australian T.V. Was being said that the government is paying the farmers exagerated prices for the rice, 500 US per tonne. The farmers are cultivating as much as they can as fast as they can to get the money which is resulting in a poorer quality of rice. The government now has massive stockpiles of rice that it can't sell on the international market at thier exagerated prices because countries are turning to other S/E Asian countries for thier rice which is apparently better quality at the moment and cheaper.

The current affairs reporter was saying that Thailand has shot itself in the foot. Maybe the international media have it wrong.

They have it absolutely right. No quotas mean everyone has grown as much as they can. Buying with no reference to quality is a disaster.

Anyone know how many buying grades there are for Thai rice? Would be interesting to know.

[hellodolly]

If there goal is to see how much rice they can warehouse rather than sell it is a complete success. 30,000 square meters of storage at the old airport and still looking for other places to store it.

[softgeorge]

If there goal is to see how much rice they can warehouse rather than sell it is a complete success. 30,000 square meters of storage at the old airport and still looking for other places to store it.

I can just imagine the rats defacating all through it whilsts it rots or do they ship the rat infested stuff overseas.

[473geo]

Make sure the producers benefit, country will prosper......well done PTP for accepting there is corruption and adopting a mechanism to resolve the problem.

[OzMick]

The new permanent secretary for the ministry of commerce fully supports the rice pledging scam "for the well-being of the majority of Thai people" and one who wanted to be the secretary for the ministry of commerce in particular.

It seems that the supporters share one common trait, self before country.

Edited October 15, 2012 by OzMick

[Ricardo]

"Meeting Goals", or scoring 'own goals', one might ask.