PM: Be careful or we will harm our rice reputation

[jcb2001]

PM: Be careful or we will harm our rice reputation

Yingluck is her own worse enemy. She is only doing more damage to an already hurting rice problem.

[boomerangutang]

This is truly confusing. Is there, or is there not, some contamination in Thai rice? One day she says there is, the next there isn't.

One thing that is certain though is that the rice mountain is not getting any younger and until they can better manipulate world rice prices it isn't getting any smaller.

Well, I have a master degree in food technology and I worked for a wheat and rye mill for some time.

facts are: in tropic climate if you get this bug inside they multiply extreme fast.

Considering they fight the bugs in this kind of storage inside the bags:

If you want to gas them out you must bring the gas to the core of this rice bag cube, so you need a lot of gas. If you don't kill all of them, the population recovers in a very short time.

Unless there is a other technology for rice which I don't know it seems very difficult.

If it is infected I think you can only sell it for other purposes...rice in the jail, rice for make beer, starch etc etc which will get way lower price

rice beer? oh well, I don't drink beer, not even the stuff made from fermented barley along with whatever stew of preservatives they use in beer nowadays. Starch, yea, now I can get behind that. Kindergardeners love the stuff - it's great for paper mache. I can see the banner now: 'Thailand: The Hub of Paper Mache'

Seriously though, I would not want to be in Ms Yinglucks $2,200 boots right now. (though I wouldn't mind being in some other select part of her wardrobe, but that's a different topic)

[tomyummer]

Yawn. Yet another cockeyed idea from the Thai government. They've managed to just screw the country again economically and in the eyes of other countries, Thailand's government looks as 'Mickey Moused' as ever (sorry Mickey). So comical how Thailand lost its top spot as rice exporter, drop to number three and drop exports by 35%! Beat out by the Indians and Vietnamese! Two countries the Thais treat as beneath them. Thais now crawling back with their lizard tails between their legs.

At least there will be lots of rice bags to use for the next flood?

[belg]

when greed is in place, honesty is the first one shown the door

[hellodolly]

With a rice yield as high as Thailand problems are bound to occur post harvest at mills,packing depots etc in house testing and government control don't always work even in the west food alerts,product recalls and press warnings of batch problems occur,Here in Thailand as is so often the case Denial and doublespeak only serve to compound the problem PR and an affected attitude always trump consumer safety-the books cover being more important than the narrative...methyl bromide but not too spicy.

I have to agree with you on that

Yingluck said

"People should not generalise all Thai rice as being substandard or contaminated, as the problem of a small amount of low-quality or contaminated rice has been blown out proportion and is negatively affecting all farmers, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra warned yesterday."

I have to agree with her on that. Because of her idiotic price that the government is paying for the rice and their refusal to look at the reality of it we start to look at things other than the price and blow them up to unreality.

The fact is however that the longer they store the rice the more true the claims against it will become.

Edit

Just trying to be fair. If it was not for the price the government is paying none of this would be talked about today.

Edited July 21, 2013 by hellodolly

[h90]

This is truly confusing. Is there, or is there not, some contamination in Thai rice? One day she says there is, the next there isn't.

One thing that is certain though is that the rice mountain is not getting any younger and until they can better manipulate world rice prices it isn't getting any smaller.

Well, I have a master degree in food technology and I worked for a wheat and rye mill for some time.

facts are: in tropic climate if you get this bug inside they multiply extreme fast.

Considering they fight the bugs in this kind of storage inside the bags:

If you want to gas them out you must bring the gas to the core of this rice bag cube, so you need a lot of gas. If you don't kill all of them, the population recovers in a very short time.

Unless there is a other technology for rice which I don't know it seems very difficult.

If it is infected I think you can only sell it for other purposes...rice in the jail, rice for make beer, starch etc etc which will get way lower price

rice beer? oh well, I don't drink beer, not even the stuff made from fermented barley along with whatever stew of preservatives they use in beer nowadays. Starch, yea, now I can get behind that. Kindergardeners love the stuff - it's great for paper mache. I can see the banner now: 'Thailand: The Hub of Paper Mache'

Seriously though, I would not want to be in Ms Yinglucks $2,200 boots right now. (though I wouldn't mind being in some other select part of her wardrobe, but that's a different topic)

It is common to add some rice to the beer, either to save costs or to get it lighter in color. I got told Heineken is doing that. But I am not sure if it is true or not. But I know it from some European brands. Starch and modified starch is in a very wide area of food. To make it creme like, or to simply bind water (so you can sell water for the price of sausage, if you can bind the water inside the sausage). Also when making bread starch is used. Starch is a big market.....but of course not that big to swallow that amount of rice.

Well for being in her boots...Even it ends in a total disaster, she won't need to pay it out of her pocket, and with some new promises she can win the next election as well.

Even in the worst case the Thai Baht collapse, she will know first and transfer her money out of the country. And transfer it back at the new exchange rate.

So I think I would like to be in her boots.

[Dap]

Too late.

[NeverSure]

My biggest concern when in Thailand is the food. I have no idea what's in it. Food stalls, restaurants, hotels - no idea. And to think that Thailand is renowned for its food.

[espinoza]

" credit-card scheme would enable farmers to purchase fertiliser, seeds and pesticides at a fair price, interest-free, for a period of five months. Four million farmers would be able to benefit from it, he said. " Petsticides also ??? Was it not a part of the case ? No pesticides in the rice ??????

[geriatrickid]

" credit-card scheme would enable farmers to purchase fertiliser, seeds and pesticides at a fair price, interest-free, for a period of five months. Four million farmers would be able to benefit from it, he said. " Petsticides also ??? Was it not a part of the case ? No pesticides in the rice ??????

Unfortunately, pesticide residue is everywhere. Thai farmers, particularly, the subsistence farmers, are neither informed nor trained in the effective and proper use of the products.

Off greater concern should be the use of herbicides which are as a class far more dangerous because they are engineered to persist and to resist breaking down. Public utilities use herbicides around power line routes and infrastructure. These herbicides accumulate in water tables and inevitably in the water used for agriculture and human consumption.

Ideally, Thailand should rely more on natural controls such as reptiles, small mammals and birds. Bats can consume 600-1000 mosquitos during the typical feeding period. Toads, frogs, geckos and the like are voracious consumers of all forms of insects. Unfortunately, the refusal to recognize that preserving natural habitat and even reserve spaces on farmland to allow colonies of natural predators to exist precludes the low cost and safe natural methods. The use of pesticides and herbicides kills off these natural controls and forces an even greater reliance on chemicals. Having a few trees suitable for nesting and that are left alone allows birds to do what they do best which is to eat insects and reptiles.

No one in the Thai agriculture department has suggested having the discussion about the use of natural predators as a means of reducing the reliance on chemicals. Thailand's agricultural chemical producers and distributors are a powerful vested interest, while Thailand's native critters have no voice.

[espinoza]

I do not know so much about herbicides, but I think you are right. I live in rural Thailand, among farmers and I see everyday that they use a lot of poison to keep their harvest "looking" good. The prime minister have now decleared that residuals of this poison is not to find in Thai rice. Should we believe her, or should I increase my private potato production ?

[fakename]

And the credit cards can only be used at shops that have an agreement with the government. Which means that the other shops will be at a big disadvantage to sell. Another nice place for corruption to flourish. Thailand spent years fighting communist, and now they are turning out to be just as red.

[espinoza]

When did Thailand fight the communism ? You have to read your history. Thailand is now becoming a communist country, because of all this corruption an lawness. I hope they will treat the corrupted as they do in China.

And the credit cards can only be used at shops that have an agreement with the government. Which means that the other shops will be at a big disadvantage to sell. Another nice place for corruption to flourish. Thailand spent years fighting communist, and now they are turning out to be just as red.

[boomerangutang]

My biggest concern when in Thailand is the food. I have no idea what's in it. Food stalls, restaurants, hotels - no idea. And to think that Thailand is renowned for its food.

if it's sweet food, it has a lot of sugar. If it's cooked, it has a lot of MSG. ....and that's not all.

I don't care so much for adults, as they can usually choose what goes down their tubes, but it's the kids who often get an unfair deal in the food dept. The other day, I saw a little pudge boy prancing around in a park. His gordo mom was following him around with a bowl of rice in one hand, and a spoon in the other, continually trying to force the denatured fumigated, herbicide-laden white starch rice in to his mouth - with scant success. He kept turning his head, and trying to walk away.

[GeorgeO]

What on earth led them to believe that creating a "rice mountain" would benefit anyone?

When the European Economic Community (EEC), as it was then, created the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), it led to similar mountains of consumables, the worst of which was the "butter mountain". In the end, butter was virtually being given away in the shops.

The true proportions of this rice fiasco have yet to be realized, but I have no doubt that this scheme will be sufficient for Moody's and all other credit rating agencies to severely downgrade the Thai economy, leading to a reduction in foreign investment inflows, the loss of the up-country support base that PTP has managed to manipulate for its own ends for so long, and the ultimate fall of this government.

Edited July 22, 2013 by GeorgeO

[GeorgeO]

This is truly confusing. Is there, or is there not, some contamination in Thai rice? One day she says there is, the next there isn't.

One thing that is certain though is that the rice mountain is not getting any younger and until they can better manipulate world rice prices it isn't getting any smaller.

Well, I have a master degree in food technology and I worked for a wheat and rye mill for some time.

facts are: in tropic climate if you get this bug inside they multiply extreme fast.

Considering they fight the bugs in this kind of storage inside the bags:

If you want to gas them out you must bring the gas to the core of this rice bag cube, so you need a lot of gas. If you don't kill all of them, the population recovers in a very short time.

Unless there is a other technology for rice which I don't know it seems very difficult.

If it is infected I think you can only sell it for other purposes...rice in the jail, rice for make beer, starch etc etc which will get way lower price

Absolutely correct. It's not clear how, but weevils appear within stored rice within just a few months. If the rice is stored in huge mountains as we see here, then the crops at the innermost point of this mountain will be teeming with these weevils and the rice will ultimately be reduced to powder.

If they really want to get to the truth about the quality of the stored rice, they should start dismantling these huge stockpiles and check what's going on in the centre of the pile; then they will begin to realize that what they have invested in is worthless....!