Investors might be on to something

The report on Thailand’s rice trade which is critical to the livelihoods of millions of farmers and a much smaller number of rice traders spelled out nothing but gloom and doom. Thailand’s rice export business, once unassailable in global markets, is now suffering from rapidly declining competitiveness, while the government’s interventionist policy makes Thai rice more expensive than comparable grain produced elsewhere without doing anything to improve yields and productivity. 

But there is one bright spot. Amid all the pessimism among Thai rice traders about their industry’s decline, Singaporean investors are said to have spotted an opportunity to benefit from the Asean Economic Cooperation (AEC) and are allegedly muscling in by setting up trading operations and buying or renting plantations without even waiting for 2015. With all the other investment opportunities available to them around the world, surely the Singaporeans are only coming to Thailand because they are confident they know how to generate superior returns, compared to the dismal profits of the Thai rice traders 

The Nation’s reporters should track down these wily investors and reveal their secrets for the good of the country without delay. Hopefully they will have more success than the Department of Special Investigations and the Business Development Department which have spent the last two years scouring the land without success to find a group of Middle Eastern investors are also allegedly operating illegally in the Thai rice industry.

George Morgan

Bangkok