Industry Ministry looking to directly sell rice to factories

 

  

BANGKOK, 3 November 2016 (NNT) – The Minister of Industry has ordered provincial industry offices and other relevant agencies conduct surveys to find factories in need of rice in a push to further sell off stocks dragging down the price of the crop. 

Industry Minister Atchaka Sibunruang has tasked Provincial Industry Offices, the Department of Industrial Factories and the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand to decipher the rice needs of the nation’s approximately 4,200 factories. The ministry is looking to directly sell rice to factories in need as a measure to assist rice farmers suffering from a drop in the grain’s price. . 

The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) has already begun aiding rice farmers to improve their liquidity and reduce their capital costs as a short term measure. In the long term, small and medium enterprises are being targeted for rice sales. . 

The National Farmers Federation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the BAAC to provide technological know-how to improve the quality of Thai rice in line with market needs. Farmers that are given the knowledge will be eligible for a special loan scheme by the BAAC to upgrade their farms. The bank is targeting 3,000 farmers for the program over the next 3 years. 

 

-- nnt 2016-11-03

Are there not starving people in Yemen and other parts of the middle east ?  It would seem that a problem could be solved by connecting a few dots. 

15 hours ago, webfact said:

...conduct surveys to find factories in need of rice...

 

Because, until now those factories couldn't find a good source of rice....

I could be wrong but it seems the more that the government and banks get involved in the business of rice growing and marketing the more that the rice sector sinks into the mire. Now academics want a say in how everything should be done. Academics live in another galaxy called Academia far removed from the reality of life. Banks are in it to led money so they can make money (if they ever get paid back even with foreclosure) and governments like to meddle to show they are in command and pretend they know something about what they talking about. 

Between the three of them I suspect the rice sector is facing doom. 

In many other countries it is the Farmers Federations which usually shows the leadership on behalf of members but I suspect that in Thailand there are many reasons why this does not apply.

maybe they should just ask their Chinese friends to pony up for a bit of rice... 

OK so try to sell direct to factories/companies, and cut out some of the middle-men, but I don't really see how this measure would actually  increase the overall consumption of rice.

 

Looking back to the scheme for a tax-incentive to encourage buying a new car, sure it did increase sales/production in-the-short-term, but it was then followed by a couple-of-years of lower sales ?

 

In a similar way this measure might speed the rice from the market short-term, but that would only reduce demand in the medium-term, and thus merely push the overall supply-and-demand problem a short way into the future.

 

But perhaps short-term effect, and appearing to be doing something, is the only objective here.

5 hours ago, yellowboat said:

Are there not starving people in Yemen and other parts of the middle east ?  It would seem that a problem could be solved by connecting a few dots. 

Free is not an option.

Much like corn in the USA they could make ricethol.

...  or lao khao, as it's known in our village, I get tapped to present the prizes every year, for the best home-made hooch !

 

Noblesse oblige, but I do limit the obligatory sampling, to remain healthy.