Calling in favours doesn't always work: Thai govt's rice-pledging scheme

[Utley]

Do Thai rice farmers have to grow the rice themselves that they sell to the Thai Government or can they purchase rice from their Laotian and Cambodian neighbors? If not - how would anyone know?

[OzMick]

If a farmer was to buy imported Cambodian or Laos rice and misrepresent it as his own crop, that would be fraud, and we know the law-abiding citizens of Thailand would not do this.

However, many farmers keep a portion of their crop for family consumption and sell the excess. But when the price offered is so high, surely the sensible thing to do would be to legally sell your entire crop and buy rice to eat at a cheaper price. Of course, it won't taste as good as genuine Thai rice, but the price differential will pay for a lot of fish sauce and chillies to make up for it.

[GentlemanJim]

If a farmer was to buy imported Cambodian or Laos rice and misrepresent it as his own crop, that would be fraud, and we know the law-abiding citizens of Thailand would not do this.

However, many farmers keep a portion of their crop for family consumption and sell the excess. But when the price offered is so high, surely the sensible thing to do would be to legally sell your entire crop and buy rice to eat at a cheaper price. Of course, it won't taste as good as genuine Thai rice, but the price differential will pay for a lot of fish sauce and chillies to make up for it.

Sadly Ozmick there will be 20 million tons of Thai rice that will taste like <deleted> soon, and no amount of fish sauce and chili will make up for it. By comparison Cambodian and Laos rice will be Gourmet cooking.

[EvilDrSomkid]

What I find...amusing?...curious?...strange?...perplexing??? - pick one...is that Thailand has rice they can't get rid of, with more to come, but according to latest reports, exports of Cambodian rice have jumped 125% in the past 5 months, and Thailand is the third highest buyer!!!

cambodian rice is claimed to be Thai rice for the pledging scheme/scam.

There's not a grain of truth to that.

Unfortunately, there is. There is video evidence of Cambodian rice being smuggled into Thailand for this scheme.

Chuwit has it. I saw it at his presentation at the FCCT.

[SICHONSTEVE]

Why is it that this is the only minister that is a liability? There is full scale incompetence and corruption across most ministerial portfolios including that of the puppet Yingluck. I guess the brillant solution would be to play musical chairs yet again and bring in a new round of pigs for their suck at the graft tit. How many education ministers have there been under this government alone in the 2 years that they have been in power? 3 or 4? One of the main items that these clowns could do if they were serious about the people would be in the education vote, yet nothing changes.

And these turkeys want to have free range on a couple of trillion Baht on the back of not only the destruction of the Thai rice industry but all their other scams, incompentance and non democratic principles.

So they don't get an A+ from you for proficiency then!!! I presume it's a case of "you must try MUCH harder"

This government has a long way to go to achieve the governance standards of some African nations - after all, who in their right mind would insert a weak novice with zero political experience into the most powerful and influencial position in Thailand.

It really beggars belief!!!

[rubl]

So with our PM Yingluck being chairman of the National Rice Policy Committee as well, one of her Office of the PM Ministers stating that the loss figures calculated by two of the various ministries is only 48 - 135 billion Baht, can we assume that Ms. Yingluck will finally relent and tell all who of the expendable cabinet ministers have caused her this misery?

[kimamey]

Let me see if I have this straight. The Thai Government buys rice from farmers above open market rates, then contracts warehouses in which to store the rice while it degrades over time, then eventually sells the rice for less than which they purchased it. How in the world could anyone think that this program could possibly lose money?

I don't think it was ever intended that this would operate at anything other than a loss. If the government could buy the rice from the farmers and then sell it at a profit then the farmers could do that themselves and the scheme wouldn't be needed.

It's not the fact that there's a loss that's the problem but the amount of that loss and the fact that the government seem to have no idea how much that loss is.

[OzMick]

Let me see if I have this straight. The Thai Government buys rice from farmers above open market rates, then contracts warehouses in which to store the rice while it degrades over time, then eventually sells the rice for less than which they purchased it. How in the world could anyone think that this program could possibly lose money?

I don't think it was ever intended that this would operate at anything other than a loss. If the government could buy the rice from the farmers and then sell it at a profit then the farmers could do that themselves and the scheme wouldn't be needed.

It's not the fact that there's a loss that's the problem but the amount of that loss and the fact that the government seem to have no idea how much that loss is.

Perhaps they could calculate a figure for how many million baht per vote?