Rice Production in Thailand Poised to Reach Record in 2012-2013

By Supunnabul Suwannakij

BANGKOK: -- Thailand, set to be the world’s biggest rice exporter this year, may harvest a record crop as a government plan to lift farm income boosted planting, said the Office of Agricultural Economics.

Production of unmilled rice in the year started October will increase 9.4 percent to 37.9 million metric tons from a year earlier, while planting area expanded 0.8 percent to 78.8 million rai (12.6 million hectares), the office said in a statement today. The main harvest, accounting for 69 percent of annual output, will rise 12.6 percent to 26.2 million tons, while production from the second crop may add 11.7 million tons.

Higher production of the staple for half the world may curb prices in Chicago as inventories tracked by the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization swell to a record 169.8 million tons. World output of milled rice in 2012-2013 is forecast at an all-time high of 465.3 million tons, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Thailand started buying rough rice from farmers above market rates in October last year, to lift domestic prices and rural incomes.

Full story: http://www.bloomberg...-2012-2013.html

-- Bloomberg 2012-12-18

Amazing Thailand...................

What an amazing turn around, from slipping behind the likes of India etc they are now poised to be #1 again !!

Or is this just another government's "white lie" to keep the farming communities spirits up??

Thailand started buying rough rice from farmers above market rates in October last year, to lift domestic prices and rural incomes.

Yep, and they are still sitting on it at those high prices, while world market prices drop. Some of it is now rotting in warehouses. Shhhhh - it's called supply and demand, not what the Thai government says it should be.

Where are they going to put this next crop? (Rhetorically speaking.)

Thailand started buying rough rice from farmers above market rates in October last year, to lift domestic prices and rural incomes.

Yep, and they are still sitting on it at those high prices, while world market prices drop. Some of it is now rotting in warehouses. Shhhhh - it's called supply and demand, not what the Thai government says it should be.

Where are they going to put this next crop? (Rhetorically speaking.)

They will sell it to a fictitious Chinese organisation for a low price. This organisation will sell it back into the rice scheme at the highly subsidised price and many friends of the PTP and red shirts will get richer.

It's a particularly green scheme. Millions of tonnes of rice will be shipped back and forth without the expenditure of a single hydrocarbon

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The price-paid goes up, and then production goes up in-response, somebody should make a note of this, and encapsulate it in an economic-law !

Now the clever bit, how to persuade the rest-of-the-world to buy it from the government, at well-above market-prices, before the warehouses run out of empty storage-apace !

Or find a way for the government to sell last-year's rice, at the going-rate, without making a thumping-great loss ? Without having to indulge in false-accounting or 'white lies' or using front-companies for the transactions.

Edited December 18, 201213 yr by Ricardo

Back to the being the Number 1 rice exporter. Should we believe it? Well, a U.S. Dept of Agriculture (USDA) says so...see the partial quote below from the news article....but I wonder why the USDA assumes higher Thai rice export sales....I sure hope it ain't just because production is expected to go up or the Thai govt is giving out rosey export "predictions."

Thailand will export 8 million tons of milled rice in 2012-2013, according to the USDA, surpassing last year’s top shippers India and Vietnam.

How about those Thai govt press releases saying they have sold a bunch of rice to China but when asked for more details, supporting documents, etc., it can't be provided. Or was it just China implying they have intentions to promote rice buys from Thailand....intentions are not actual sales.

I can understand production going up under the current rice buying scheme--very good money indeed which has drove higher the prices the govt asks for rice export sales....I didn't know higher asking prices (higher than other sellers) resulted in higher sales....I thought it worked the other way.

Good news for all who get a part of the 'rice price pledging budget'.

Does the bumped crop expected mean that the THB 400 billion might not be sufficient and a wee bit more need to be reserved? To be financed in part with the proceeds of the highly priced Thai special rice?

Rice Production in Thailand Poised to Reach Record in 2012-2013

Record rice production maybe, record rice export don't think so.

Rice Production in Thailand Poised to Reach Record in 2012-2013

Record rice production maybe, record rice export don't think so.

The high price of Thai rice has resulted in the Kingdom losing about 50 per cent of its export customers as countries switch to importing more rice from India and Vietnam, which offer more attractive prices.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/High-prices-sap-Thai-rice-exports-30196321.html

Harvest != sales.

Lies lies lies.

Every available space for storing rice is full to bursting as far as I know, next they will be asking the farmers to store the rice under thier houses, but only until international sales pick up again, or are they telling the farmers that Thailand is still in the No. 1 position and all the reports to the contrary are lies generated by someone else somewhere else.

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Lies, white lies and government statistics.

Production is increasing and exports are decreasing. I hope that everybody understands why.

The governement is paying THB 50 billion!!! a year on handling charges. These include storage and transportation.

We are witnessing the largest corruption case in thai history. It is estimated that this game will cost Thailand around THB 250 billion a year. And the majority of the Thai people don't seem to care.

Can somebody please explain why the DSI is not investigating this case. Please anybody..

Where do you get that world prices are dropping. They are not

This should be good news for people living in Thailand.

Record production coupled with the inability to sell most of it abroad due to inflated prices should mean a glut in the domestic market and cheap rice for the locals.

Well, it should.......

Back to the being the Number 1 rice exporter. Should we believe it? Well, a U.S. Dept of Agriculture (USDA) says so...see the partial quote below from the news article....but I wonder why the USDA assumes higher Thai rice export sales....I sure hope it ain't just because production is expected to go up or the Thai govt is giving out rosey export "predictions."

Thailand will export 8 million tons of milled rice in 2012-2013, according to the USDA, surpassing last year’s top shippers India and Vietnam.

How about those Thai govt press releases saying they have sold a bunch of rice to China but when asked for more details, supporting documents, etc., it can't be provided. Or was it just China implying they have intentions to promote rice buys from Thailand....intentions are not actual sales.

I can understand production going up under the current rice buying scheme--very good money indeed which has drove higher the prices the govt asks for rice export sales....I didn't know higher asking prices (higher than other sellers) resulted in higher sales....I thought it worked the other way.

But which crop year?

All that rice and nowhere to go.

Production is increasing and exports are decreasing. I hope that everybody understands why.

The governement is paying THB 50 billion!!! a year on handling charges. These include storage and transportation.

We are witnessing the largest corruption case in thai history. It is estimated that this game will cost Thailand around THB 250 billion a year. And the majority of the Thai people don't seem to care.

Can somebody please explain why the DSI is not investigating this case. Please anybody..

This government has family, friends and acolytes firmly entrenched in various strategic positions, and DSI are not likely to be investigating any activity that would show thier benefactors in a bad light.

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With all the droughts listed in Thailand at present, and a friend outside Udon Thani saying that the crops are failing as little rain this year........

It is not like they have to grow more to retake the spot as the biggest exporter, they just need to sell all the rice they have stockpiled. There mistake was to stockpile the rice to begin with thinking it would cause a bigger demand and in turn higher prices. They obviously didn't see that there were a number of countries willing and able to fill the demand. The rice subsidies should have just been looked at as a government expense and they should have sold the rice at a small loss all along ... but hindsight is always 20/20.

planted ara increases by 0.8% main harvest by 12.6%. Hmm

It is not like they have to grow more to retake the spot as the biggest exporter, they just need to sell all the rice they have stockpiled. There mistake was to stockpile the rice to begin with thinking it would cause a bigger demand and in turn higher prices. They obviously didn't see that there were a number of countries willing and able to fill the demand. The rice subsidies should have just been looked at as a government expense and they should have sold the rice at a small loss all along ... but hindsight is always 20/20.

Except that having a policy of selling a product at a loss is called dumping, and quite rightly so subject to international sanctions.

They've got a crap load of rice. They've got to dump it somewhere.

What an amazing turn around, from slipping behind the likes of India etc they are now poised to be #1 again !!

Or is this just another government's "white lie" to keep the farming communities spirits up??

The #1 rating is for exports, not the size of the rice mountain.

Edit oops missed the opening sentence in OP Sorry.

Edited December 18, 201213 yr by Mosha

Perhaps next year the can use it in place of sandbags.

Perhaps all the excess rice can be used as landfill somewhere.

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Perhaps all the excess rice can be used as landfill somewhere.

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Seems there are lots more sinkholes occurring in Bangkok each year ... that would be a start.

Perhaps all the excess rice can be used as landfill somewhere.

Seems there are lots more sinkholes occurring in Bangkok each year ... that would be a start.

Maybe they're already using the rice as landfill ... and then it's rotting away causing the sinkholes.