Thai Rice Harvesters - cutting prices capped by the Army?

[Dario]

I've read in a thread that the army is imposing a maximum price of 500 Baht/rai now. Is that true? If so, I wonder how they can determine how much an owner of a harvester needs to charge in order to just break even. Cutting price was always due to the market situation. If there weren't many harvesters coming to the Isaan (where I live) from the central plains, then we could charge more. But when more and more harvester are coming, the prices drop. It's already for many harvester owners not easy anymore to make money with more and more competition coming from Suphanburi, Phathum Thani & Cie. If the army also wants to impose caps, the situation changes for the worse.

In a very recent thread I read that some harvester owners from the central plains return back home and some rice just remains uncut.

Does anyone know something concrete?

Edited November 3, 2014 by Dario

[cooked]

฿400.- / rai. The rice cutters saw the army come out to the fields and went home. They were asking ฿600.- / rai. I saw plenty of rice ready to cut this morning but only one harvester, and that was parked in a yard with no one about.

I was getting ready to buy a harvester earlier this year until I saw what was (or wasn't) happening to rice prices. On the basis of ฿600.-/ rai money can be made, ฿400.- ? Forget it.

[IsaanAussie]

It seems the only option soon will be to sell the crop standing in the paddy to a rice merchant who has harvester and trucks and will pay the highest amount. Less labour to hand cut available every year and much more expensive than machines. Not much room left for the small holding rice farmer.