- Japan Third Quarter GDP Jumps; 2010 Growth May Slow
- Analysis: APEC Nations Back Face-Saving Climate Plan
- Shift Into High-Quality Stocks Could Move Market Higher
- Drug Study Questions Effectiveness of Merck's Drugs
- Military Arms Race Dominates Dubai Air Show
- Buffett: I Haven't Bought AMEX Shares in Years
- Disaster Film '2012' Drowns Rivals at Box Office
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- Cramer: 5 Earnings Reports to Watch Next Week
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: 'I Haven't Bought American Express In Years'
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- U.S. Stocks Rally for the Second Straight Week
- Dollar is Not Plunging—So 'Calm Down': Market Strategist
- Strategists Say Markets Have More Upside — But How Much?
- Hirschhorn: Risk-Averse Traders
- Roginsky: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Financial Reform
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
MOST SHARED
- U.S. May Wind Up Green With Envy
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: 'I Haven't Bought American Express In Years'
- Japan Third Quarter GDP Jumps; 2010 Growth May Slow
- Analysis: APEC Nations Back Face-Saving Climate Plan
- Disaster Film '2012' Drowns Rivals at Box Office
- Dipping Into Green Investing
- For Investors, The New Green Looks To Be White
- The Cost of Thanksgiving Dinner 2009
- Sustainability Indices Sprouting Up
- Finding Value and Growth In The Green Sector
Text Size 
 |
“We don’t aspire to be like OPEC, but we hope to be just a group of five to help each other in trading rice on the world market,” Mr. Samak was quoted as saying in The Nation newspaper.
Governments in Thailand, the world’s largest rice exporter, have for many years toyed with the idea of using their dominant market position to influence the price of rice in the same way that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries tries to set crude oil prices.
The plan appears to be in a nascent stage. “I think it’s time to do it, probably within the term of this administration,” Noppadon Pattama, Thailand’s foreign minister, said Wednesday.
But if successful, a cartel could have far-reaching consequences on the rice market, sustaining prices at their current historic highs and worsening a food crisis that is hurting Asia’s poorest consumers. The price of Thai B-grade rice, a benchmark variety, has nearly tripled in recent months and is now hovering at about $1,000 a ton.
Maintaining rice prices would please large-scale rice farmers and traders in countries like Thailand and Vietnam, but it would anger places like the Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong, which rely heavily on imported rice. Plans for the cartel were front-page news in the Philippines on Thursday.
The current ruling coalition in Thailand received the backbone of its support from rural areas, and Mr. Samak appears eager to capitalize on the rice price increase. Thai rice farmers now “have an opportunity,” he said in a recent interview.
Unlike corn, wheat and other grains that are widely traded globally, only a small number of countries export rice. The largest rice producers, China, India and Indonesia, consume most of their rice crop domestically.
Thanks to a vast, fertile delta, which allows farmers to harvest three or four times a year, Thailand exports about 10 million tons annually, twice as much as Vietnam, the second-largest rice exporter, and three times what the United States exports.
Rice prices rose sharply in March and April after many exporting countries, including Brazil, Egypt, India and Vietnam, announced that they were restricting exports to ensure domestic supplies.
Print
Email
- Where, what, how.
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates spoke to Columbia students, and Buffett made the students a startling offer.
- For the chief of cable company Comcast, growth has been about making deals – generally very large deals.
- Some companies may start using insurance to shift carbon risk from their balance sheets to maybe... yours?
- The president and founder of Genesis Today wants to improve America’s health, and thinks Wal-Mart can help.
- Switzerland's privacy watchdog is taking legal action to force Google to make changes to its Street View service.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes