Thread: Thailand : Rice-price bonanza to 'boost economy'

Rice-price bonanza to 'boost economy'
Published on April 17, 2008


Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan believes escalating prices for rice will become a key factory in helping stimulate Thailand's economy and boost consumers' purchasing power.

The country's gross domestic product will grow, as will farmers' spending power, because rice prices are on the uptrend, Mingkwan said.

World rice prices have more than doubled in the past three or four months, because of shortages of supply in many exporting countries. World demand is also rising, so Thailand, which has no restrictions on exports, has a good chance of earning more money.

As the world's largest rice exporter, Thailand has seen the price of jasmine rice rise from between Bt12,000 and Bt15,000 per tonne late last year to between Bt34,600 and Bt36,000. In the same time, the price of 5-per-cent white rice has risen from between Bt7,000 and Bt10,000 per tonne to between Bt26,400 and Bt26,700.

Mingkwan said the continuing trend would help turn Southeast Asia into a prosperous region, comparable even with the Middle East.

He said 85 per cent of Thailand's population consisted of low and lower-middle income groups, and of these between 17 million and 20 million people were rice farmers.

Farmers will have more money to spend on consumer goods and automobiles and be able to repay debts accumulated in recent years because of low returns for rice farming, he said.

Meanwhile, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon warned the global shortage of food grains was now an emergency issue.

India and Vietnam, the world's second- and third-largest rice exporters, respectively, have already suspended exports, due to lower domestic supplies.

At present, Thailand's share of the global rice market is 31.4 per cent, and Mingkwan said this could jump to as much as 40 per cent. Thailand is expected to export 9 million tonnes of rice this year.

The Commerce Minister said the government would hold its stockpile of 2.1 million tonnes of rice, in order to ensure domestic food security until this year's first harvest in November, which is expected to yield about 15.8 million tonnes of rice.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai
nationmultimedia.com


yep , that bridge is still for sale ................

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"Mingkwan said the continuing trend would help turn Southeast Asia into a prosperous region, comparable even with the Middle East."

This is interesting. I doubt that the poor farmers lives will be much better at least not enough to call this area "a prosperous region" I kind of expect the corrupt dirtbags in Chinatown I mean Bangkok will rip off the little guys who are working in the fields AS USUAL.

comparable even with the Middle East.

Its already like the Middle East, the rich are getting richer and the poor struggle to survive.

Originally Posted by Mid

Mingkwan said the continuing trend would help turn Southeast Asia into a prosperous region, comparable even with the Middle East.

Theres a new hotel going up in Buriram, here is the artsits impression...

Has it occurred to the enlightened Minister that the approx. 30 million low and lower-middle income group who aren't rice farmers will have to buy it at the higher price and have less money to spend on creating the envisioned consumer paradise?

Any calculations how many rice-harvests it would take for small-scale farmers to repay their debts before they'll be able to buy sports cars and other toys?

Stroller you are bang on target with your comments.
The middle men and above are the only ones who will get richer from increased rice prices.
I know of at least one huge go down in Bangkok that is full to the eaves with rice-and still more arrives there. It is a one way street at this place, only empty waggons going out.
In the area I live the minimum wage is 158 baht per day and that is the wage paid for most non governmental jobs here.
With rent-water-electric-motorcycle finance etc and a couple of kids to feed there are surely not many bahts left for luxury items-you know things like soap and shampoo for the kids etc.

i have heard talk that the poor are supposed to now eat bananas when they cannot afford rice!!! FFS.

The government already has good buying power abroad and the King only recently advised the government to use this purchasing power to but heavy machinery etc that would allow Thailand to progress further along the road to self sufficiency.

A few big excavators for use in improving the irrigation systems in some areas springs to mind---Then even more rice could be produced.

Rice for domestic consumption should have the price pegged. The mechanism via export licencing is already in place to ensure that Thai rice feed Thai paople first!

The next move should be to devalue the baht to make exports more affordable and imports less attractive thereby creating more jobs here .
Quite a good Idea would be to tighten up on the employment of burmese labour giving more work again to the indigenous Thai.