Measures set to stop rice prices falling

[rooster59]

Measures set to stop rice prices falling

BANGKOK: THE COMMERCE Ministry, in cooperation with the Thai Rice Exporters Association, has launched measures to prevent rice prices falling during the upcoming main-crop harvest.

The goal is to prevent white paddy rice trading below a range of Bt8,000-Bt8,500 per tonne, while the price of paddy jasmine rice should be maintained at no lower than Bt13,500.

Charoen Laothamatas, president of the association, said yesterday that its members had agreed to spend a combined Bt50 million to purchase 100,000 of jasmine rice from the market at about Bt26,000 per tonne to absorb supply from the market during the next four months.

"This amount of purchased rice will not be traded in the market, but will be stocked for three months to ensure that there is no oversupply during the harvest season," he explained.

The measure should help guarantee that the price of paddy jasmine rice does not fall below Bt13,500 a tonne, and that farmers can get a profit of at least 15-30 per cent from their output, he added.

The association could consider increasing the overall purchase volume if it eventually found there was an oversupply problem, its chief said.

For white paddy rice, the ministry expects prices will be no lower than Bt8,000-Bt8,500 a tonne in the coming months, due to higher demand for white rice in many markets - mainly the Philippines, Indonesia and African countries.

Moreover, Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said the ministry would suspend its plan to release rice from the government's stocks via auction during the harvest season from November to February, in a bid to prevent prices falling.

In the meantime, it will only consider selling rotten rice for use in the production of biomass or as base-material supply for energy production, she said.

About 16 million to 17 million tonnes of paddy rice are expected to be harvested during the main-crop harvest, well below the normal level of about 23 million tonnes due to the drought problems faced by farmers this year.

To help farmers, the government earlier came up with a measure to allocate Bt26.42 billion to provide soft loans for them to stock rice in their barns during the harvest season.

This should help absorb about 2 million tonnes of rice from the market.

Charoen also projected that Thailand should be able to export at least 9.5 million to 10 million tonnes of rice this year, and around 10 million tonnes next year.

With high demand in the market, the amount of rice in the government's stockpile should be reduced to 5 million tonnes next year, he said.

With about 13 million tonnes currently held in the stockpile, the Commerce Ministry said that 1 million to 2 million tonnes could be sold this year under government-to-government contracts.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Measures-set-to-stop-rice-prices-falling-30271977.html

-- The Nation 2015-10-31

[Chang_paarp]

Another rice buying scheme to prop up the price. I can see this going the same way as previous schemes.

[aussieinthailand]

Another rice buying scheme to prop up the price. I can see this going the same way as previous schemes.

And if it did go south, then I wonder if they will go after the PM like they are now after the previous one???

after all he has claimed he "established sovereign power". I'm just sayin

[ClutchClark]

So they deny the rubber tree farmers any assistsnce and leave them to suffer market conditions but plan another bail out for rice farmers.

I am saddened by this decision.

[SoilSpoil]

The best way to increase the world rice prices is to buy up every single rice grain in the world. Import from other countries at about 50% above the market prices. Hoard it for a couple of years and then sell it to a hungry world population at record breaking profits. Good for Thailand, according to a certain political fraction.

[tbthailand]

hmm, buy the rice at a higher price, keep it in storage so that the price remains high, then sell it later...

Is everyone in agreement that this plan will work?

[maoro2013]

Successive governments have not yet learnt to stop meddling with the market for rice and rubber.

The governments have caused the problems in nthe first place.

[SoilSpoil]

hmm, buy the rice at a higher price, keep it in storage so that the price remains high, then sell it later...

Is everyone in agreement that this plan will work?

It doesn't matter of such a plan works, cause it's not those who vote for you who will pay for the damage. Its those who vote against you, the evil middle class tax payers who will end up footing the bill. A political and economical win win.

[waldroj]

Short-term pain maybe, but the long-term situation may not be as bad. The looming drought is bound to have a big impact on rice production across a large part of SEAsia. So, while prices may fall short term, having a large stockpile may actually produce a windfall later on!

[ClutchClark]

Show me a country where agriculture is not subsidized by the respective government.

[wow64]

This is a good idea the government should get involved.

Cant see any issues with it.

Sent from my c64

[Bender]

i guess there are too much people working in the rice sector.

Time to launch new economics measure.

The thai rice sector will know the same faith than the heavy industries and factories in Europe! They are doomed.

[RubbaJohnny]

Show me a country where agriculture is not subsidized by the respective government.

New Zealand and Australia have very low levels a tenth of European levels

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AgriculturalSubsidyPrograms.html

Qatar, N Korea, Iran, Algeria have minimal support

"In 1984 New Zealand's Labor government took the dramatic step of ending all farm subsidies, which then consisted of 30 separate production payments and export incentives. This was a truly striking policy action, because New Zealand's economy is roughly five times more dependent on farming than is the U.S. economy, measured by either output or employment. Subsidies in New Zealand accounted for more than 30 percent of the value of production before reform, somewhat higher than U.S. subsidies today. And New Zealand farming was marred by the same problems caused by U.S. subsidies, including overproduction, environmental degradation and inflated land prices."

Edited October 31, 2015 by RubbaJohnny

[SoilSpoil]

Show me a country where agriculture is not subsidized by the respective government.

Show me a country where agricultural subsidies mysteriously disappear and not end up in the pockets of the farmers.

[halloween]

OK, the concept is to buy rice during a glut to keep the price above B13,5000, and then sell it off after the glut at the same price. Sounds logical.

But why would they buy "jasmine rice from the market at about Bt26,000 per tonne" during a glut? Who's the lucky sellers getting twice market price?

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

Don't worry, global warming and the droughts caused by it have already started, that will solve that problem for you.

There will soon be less rice, and other crops to be grown and supply and demand will take over and the price of rice will skyrocket. Of course there will not be much rice to sell.

Can't have your cake and eat it.

[Ks45672]

The best way to increase the world rice prices is to buy up every single rice grain in the world. Import from other countries at about 50% above the market prices. Hoard it for a couple of years and then sell it to a hungry world population at record breaking profits. Good for Thailand, according to a certain political fraction.

Because rice only grows in thailand... Lol

Other countries would just grow extra and still sell it to Thai for 50% overvalued price agreed...

[dbrenn]

Another dodgy rice price fixing scheme? Wasn't that one of the reasons why they kicked out the previous government?

What a bunch of bare faced hypocrites these useless old generals are.

Edited October 31, 2015 by dbrenn

[phoenixdoglover]

hmm, buy the rice at a higher price, keep it in storage so that the price remains high, then sell it later...

Is everyone in agreement that this plan will work?

The definition of insanity.

[Thai at Heart]

Successive governments have not yet learnt to stop meddling with the market for rice and rubber.

The governments have caused the problems in nthe first place.

They aren't doing it to meddle. They are doing it to pay the farmers a better price.

[Ks45672]

Successive governments have not yet learnt to stop meddling with the market for rice and rubber.

The governments have caused the problems in nthe first place.

They aren't doing it to meddle. They are doing it to pay the farmers a better price.

Market demand should dictate price, but if the did it that way it would be too logical and wouldn't fit in with thainess

[Thai at Heart]

Successive governments have not yet learnt to stop meddling with the market for rice and rubber.

The governments have caused the problems in nthe first place.

They aren't doing it to meddle. They are doing it to pay the farmers a better price.

Market demand should dictate price, but if the did it that way it would be too logical and wouldn't fit in with thainess

Food security deserves to be treated a little differently than a mobile phone or a t shirt.

[Ks45672]

Successive governments have not yet learnt to stop meddling with the market for rice and rubber.

The governments have caused the problems in nthe first place.

They aren't doing it to meddle. They are doing it to pay the farmers a better price.

Market demand should dictate price, but if the did it that way it would be too logical and wouldn't fit in with thainess

Food security deserves to be treated a little differently than a mobile phone or a t shirt.

If the demand to eat more rice was there, they wouldn't need this price fixing

This is not about eating rice, they're trying to manipulate the market but cheap rice grows in all the neighbouring countries too

If they grow two much the price will go down because it's for export and other countries won't pay double or triple for price fixed rice, Thailand is probably too heavily reliant on rice anyway but it will take them a few decades to figure out how to grow something else that they can eat or sell when they're is too much rice...

[Thai at Heart]

Successive governments have not yet learnt to stop meddling with the market for rice and rubber.

The governments have caused the problems in nthe first place.

They aren't doing it to meddle. They are doing it to pay the farmers a better price.

Market demand should dictate price, but if the did it that way it would be too logical and wouldn't fit in with thainess

Food security deserves to be treated a little differently than a mobile phone or a t shirt.

If the demand to eat more rice was there, they wouldn't need this price fixing

This is not about eating rice, they're trying to manipulate the market but cheap rice grows in all the neighbouring countries too

If they grow two much the price will go down because it's for export and other countries won't pay double or triple for price fixed rice, Thailand is probably too heavily reliant on rice anyway but it will take them a few decades to figure out how to grow something else that they can eat or sell when they're is too much rice...

They aren't trying to manipulate anything. They are trying to stop people starving. If the USA, EU and others can subsidise rice, Thailand should to to th4 best of its abilities.

Yes, Greece grows rice and they get a whopping subsidy.

[Lampang2]

Buffer management.

Simple and effective.

[Ks45672]

Successive governments have not yet learnt to stop meddling with the market for rice and rubber.

The governments have caused the problems in nthe first place.

They aren't doing it to meddle. They are doing it to pay the farmers a better price.

Market demand should dictate price, but if the did it that way it would be too logical and wouldn't fit in with thainess

Food security deserves to be treated a little differently than a mobile phone or a t shirt.

If the demand to eat more rice was there, they wouldn't need this price fixing

This is not about eating rice, they're trying to manipulate the market but cheap rice grows in all the neighbouring countries too

If they grow two much the price will go down because it's for export and other countries won't pay double or triple for price fixed rice, Thailand is probably too heavily reliant on rice anyway but it will take them a few decades to figure out how to grow something else that they can eat or sell when they're is too much rice...

They aren't trying to manipulate anything. They are trying to stop people starving. If the USA, EU and others can subsidise rice, Thailand should to to th4 best of its abilities.

Yes, Greece grows rice and they get a whopping subsidy.

Its about profits , not starving

There is already a pile of rice in govt storage for exporting...and they want to control the world market with a price fixing minimum, If it was just about eating they could give the ptp rice back to be eaten

[Thai at Heart]

Successive governments have not yet learnt to stop meddling with the market for rice and rubber.

The governments have caused the problems in nthe first place.

They aren't doing it to meddle. They are doing it to pay the farmers a better price.

Market demand should dictate price, but if the did it that way it would be too logical and wouldn't fit in with thainess

Food security deserves to be treated a little differently than a mobile phone or a t shirt.

If the demand to eat more rice was there, they wouldn't need this price fixing

This is not about eating rice, they're trying to manipulate the market but cheap rice grows in all the neighbouring countries too

If they grow two much the price will go down because it's for export and other countries won't pay double or triple for price fixed rice, Thailand is probably too heavily reliant on rice anyway but it will take them a few decades to figure out how to grow something else that they can eat or sell when they're is too much rice...

They aren't trying to manipulate anything. They are trying to stop people starving. If the USA, EU and others can subsidise rice, Thailand should to to th4 best of its abilities.

Yes, Greece grows rice and they get a whopping subsidy.

Its about profits , not starving

There is already a pile of rice in govt storage for exporting...and they want to control the world market with a price fixing minimum, If it was just about eating they could give the ptp rice back to be eaten

That is essentially 3 or 4 years old and rotten.

[RubbaJohnny]

Another dodgy rice price fixing scheme? Wasn't that one of the reasons why they kicked out the previous government?

What a bunch of bare faced hypocrites these useless old generals are.

This was one of the rationales offered, whether it is the sole raison d'etre is moot

The underlying point is universal are governments superior at managing trade to traders?

I leave intelligent readers to form their own opinions.

Unlike some developed nations there are still millions at or near subsistence level.

How to boost their income has many options,

Inter alia

self help, self sufficiency, emigration to the cities, or aroad as remittance workers,,training,social welfare or direct subsidy of their products

There is little consensus the wealthy have made it clear they'll make merit in a future life while the folks knee deep planting in the paddy want sanook sooner.

The tragedy of rice mismanagent can be seen across the south asia where farmers eat cheap imported packed noodles of low nutriotional value and draining foreign exchange

Edited November 1, 2015 by RubbaJohnny

[halloween]

Another dodgy rice price fixing scheme? Wasn't that one of the reasons why they kicked out the previous government?

What a bunch of bare faced hypocrites these useless old generals are.

This was one of the rationales offered, whether it is the sole raison d'etre is moot

The underlying point is universal are governments superior at managing trade to traders?

I leave intelligent readers to form their own opinions.

Unlike some developed nations there are still millions at or near subsistence level.

How to boost their income has many options,

Inter alia

self help, self sufficiency, emigration to the cities, or aroad as remittance workers,,training,social welfare or direct subsidy of their products

There is little consensus the wealthy have made it clear they'll make merit in a future life while the folks knee deep planting in the paddy want sanook sooner.

The tragedy of rice mismanagent can be seen across the south asia where farmers eat cheap imported packed noodles of low nutriotional value and draining foreign exchange

Trying to minimise price fluctuations due to cyclical supply is neither difficult or expensive. But you really amused me with your last sentence.

While some of the larger chains do stock imported noodles, they are a luxury item selling at 5+ times the price of the local product, which is cheap and abundant. Guess what they are made from?

[GOLDBUGGY]

It's a shame to have all this rice rotting when there is so many children in the world going to bed hungry.