Exporters: Vietnamese rice taking over

[PeteC]

A little tidbit for everyone's enlightenment. With a communist system there is still some corruption in Vietnam, but I'm sure the government comes down hard on big abusers, like with a round from an AK47. Whereas here in Thailand the government guaranteed price for unmilled paddy is $469 per ton, and selling price is $900, vs Vietnam at $550. Don't blame the Thai government for too high of a guarantee price to help the farmers, blame the bloody swarms of middlemen who take something for doing nothing. That's what makes up the $350 export price difference. $350 may not look like much, but we're talking millions of tons per year. Pete



Exporters: Vietnamese rice taking over

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/eco ... aking-over

* Published: 27/07/2010 at 03:38 PM
* Online news: Economics

Rice exports plummeted more than 30 per cent in the first half of this year because of competition from cheaper Vietnamese jasmine rice, Thai Rice Exporters Association president Chukiat Opaswong said on Tuesday.

"More buyers in Hong Kong are turning to Vietnamese rice as its jasmine rice is about US$550 per tonne while Thai jasmine rice is sold at US$900 a tonne," Mr Chukiat said.

He said 60,000 tonnes of Thai rice were exported to Hong Kong in the first two quarters of 2010. The country sold 300,000 tonnes to Hong Kong at the same time last year.

The government's announcement to guarantee the price of unmilled rice at 15,000 baht a tonne has made Thai rice more expensive and this year's rice output would likely be lower than the previous year, he said.

Thailand's jasmine rice exports for 2010 could drop to 1.6 million tonnes. The country previously projected exports of two million tonnes this year, he said.

The Department of Export Promotion reported that Vietnam sold US$11 million worth of rice to Hong Kong and China in the first five months of this year. The amount is almost equal to Thailand's total rice exports to Hong Kong for an entire year.

[mabubba]

Once the surplusses build up, Thai Exporters will have to lower their prices. Market forces will rule.

[usual suspect]

My Mrs can see this decline in rice exports & a drop in prices due to greed among the ranks.
On our farm we are lucky to have land that will grow sugar...the price of this commodity is on the up
each year, hence we now grow less rice,more sugar.
While on the subject of greedy middle-men..how many times has a free government handout to poor Issaan farmers ended up being a 4-7% interest-loan by the time that funding reaches them..?? T.I.T.