Two simple ways to help Thailand's rice farmers
It is shameful that Thailand is the number one rice exporter in the world, but Thai farmers are dirt poor.
I don’t know anything about the rice business, and I’d like to raise two questions. First, is it possible for the government to set up a RAT (Rice Authority of Thailand) to manage the rice business?
The RAT would be a state enterprise that buys rice from farmers at fixed prices so they make a reasonable profit. The RAT would own rice stations all over the country (like PTT petrol stations), all equipped with warehouses, silos and milling factories. The RAT would sell milled rice to wholesalers and exporters at a just price, in line with local and international demand and supply. This way we eliminate unscrupulous middlemen and greedy rice millers. Since the RAT would buy rice at a fixed price and sell at a just price, it may face loss or profit from the selling, but that wouldn’t matter, because its loss would be the farmers’ gain.
My second question: Is it possible for major rice-exporting countries to set up an OREC (Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries)? According to the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute, about one in every two people in the world relies on rice as a staple food. Why don’t Thailand, India, Vietnam and the others set up OREC so we can manipulate rice prices the way the OPEC does with oil?
May be I am too naive, but are they possible, the RAT and the OREC?
Somsak Pola
Samut Prakan
