Thai Commerce Min in talks with many countries to sell rice

[LuckyLew]

Show us the paperwork?

They can't show you what does not exist

[AleG]

I can't even imagine how much 21 million tons would look like. Round that off to 2,000 pounds per ton and that's 40 billion pounds, or about 20 billion kilos. ??

Maybe my math is way off as I'm not used to that system of weights and measures, but I can't even fathom how they could store that much.

There's also a comment in there, "...the latest rice buying scheme, which requires farmers to send only rice to the government; rice bran and broken milled rice are excluded. Therefore, the real amount is much more lower than the registered figure."

So they are buying and registering bran and broken, but the farmers don't have to send it? What an opportunity for fraud if I read that right. ??

What a mess.

I just did a quick calculation, at 850 kilograms per cubic meter of rice, 21 million tons of rice is almost exactly the same volume as the Great Pyramid of Giza... times ten.

[hellodolly]

"only a small amount of rice need to be sold" Niwatthamrong said.

One of the funniest things I have ever read about the rice scam. Khun Niwatthamrong, you my friend are a comic genius!

He is probably figuring he can jack the price up enough so all that rotten rice and the rest in the warehouses will just be profit.

I know what a stupid thing to say. But then again look who is claiming he only has to sell a little bit.

[PeVee1st]

I recently travelled around Kalasin, Roi Et and Surin, I noticed the dumpimg of rice from the farms on the concrete outside the mills, huge piles of rice. At all the mills I saw front end loaders piling the rice as the farmers dumped it on the concrete, at one mill I saw the front end loader taking rice from inside the mill and mix it with the rice on the concrete outside. Was this mixing old and new rice stocks? Also, I saw large flocks of pigeons eating the rice and we all know what pigeons are good for, producing piles of s-it!

The fact that the mills are full and that new mills have been built are also full, indicates a very big stockpile, with no outflow movement in sales.

[Skywalker69]

Somebody must be lying.......

Thailand, once the world’s biggest rice exporter, will see a 17 percent jump in stockpiles to a record next year as it pursues a policy of buying from farmers at above market rates, said the Food & Agriculture Organization.

The government stepped up efforts since July to dispose of inventories even at a loss to free storage space and raise funds, the United Nations agency said in its quarterly report on the global market. The reserves, described as “huge,” will still climb to 20.4 million metric tons next year even as exports rebound 26 percent to 8.5 million tons, said the FAO.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s administration, which fended off violent demonstrations across Bangkok this week by protesters seeking her removal, started its rice-buying program in 2011. The $21 billion policy, designed to boost rural incomes, spurred the buildup of record stockpiles as output rose and exports fell. The International Monetary Fund said last month the program should be replaced, warning that left unchanged it would hurt confidence in public finances.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-12-04/thailand-faces-pressure-from-state-rice-buying-program-fao-says

only a small amount of rice need to be sold,

[englishoak]

Should Tomboon a few million tons to Africa or starving regions.....free.......... good karma..

[Crushdepth]

Still won't release the figures? Wow. The corruption must be truly epic. Shin-scale, even.

[Ricardo]

Show us the paperwork?

They can't show you what does not exist

Surely there must be a government-department, charged with photo-shopping it, beavering away as we speak ?

Or is there a sudden shortage of Thai-creativity & imagination ?

Perhaps I ought to hunt out my childhood-toy 'Bulldog printing-kit', and put in a bid for the contract, in a brown-envelope ?

[CWMcMurray]

I wonder what the break even date would be for storage costs....

After how many days would it have been better for Thai government to just give a check and dump the rice rather than hold it in storage?

As per below link ... 1 ton of rice is about 18.57 cbm

http://answers.wikia.com/wiki/One_ton_of_rice_occupies_how_many_cubic_meters

Cost of storage can vary ... But fair "per cbm rate" for traditional w/h in Thailand is aprox 10 thb per cbm per day. Some in the market may be a bit less and some a bit more, but this is a good average

So given the high volumes involved , let's say Thai gov was able to negotiate rate at half that... So let's say 5 THB per cbm per day....

18.57 cbm * 5 = 92.85 *7% vat = 99.35 thb a day per ton

What is the market value of rice?

How many days on average is the rice being stored before sale?

[mrtoad]

You couldn't make up this incompetence. What surprises me though, is that the defenders of Thaksin and his Red Shirt Clowns, never seem to have anything much to say about this disgusting scam.

[CWMcMurray]

I found this link....

Which gives value of 1 ton of rice a 453.26 USD in Oct 2013

So based upon this and fx rate of 30 thb to 1 USD... Storage cost would be aprox USD 3.31 per cbm per day

So this would mean after 137 days, the cost of storage is higher than the value of the rice in self

How long again has the rice been held in the warehouses?

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=rice&months=60&commodity=rice

Edited December 7, 2013 by CWMcMurray