Rice payments tomorrow

I don't think that there has been any official announcement that the rice pledging scheme is finished. Unfortunately many farmers will still believe that any new season rice will be paid at the same inflated price, B15,000 per tonne, as before. I think there might be a misguided belief that 'the government' military or otherwise should continue to subsidize them because they are are the backbone of the economy.

But agriculture has long since ceased to be the economic driving force in Thailand and now rice has fallen to its lowest international price in many years, of around B6,500 per tonne. Its still costs B9,000 per tonne to produce, so farmers are still in deep poo.

I too have heard no official announcement that the scheme has finished but it is common knowledge that all that is on offer is the price offered by the rice mills and has been that way for some months.

Where we live the local price in the last few weeks has been between 4500 and 7000 bht, less than breakeven.

I would not be at all surprised that the next crop attracts a direct to the farmer subsidy the same as that offered by the Democrats.