JAPAN TO BE URGED TO EXPAND IMPORT QUOTA FOR THAI RICE

       The Commerce Ministry will urge Japan to enlarge its import quota for Thai rice, as part of the government's plan to boost new-harvest exports.
       Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai yesterday said she would talk to state agencies in Japan about extending the country's import quota.
       In addition, the government will offer to sell new-harvest rice to Japan as part of the ministry's plan to boost exports via government-to-government contracts.
       Porntiva will accompany Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on a visit to Japan next week in a bid to forge closer economic ties.
       "We hope Japan will consider importing three to four times more rice in the near future," she said, adding that the country currently imports mainly low-quality rice to supply its rice-product manufacturing sector.
       Porntiva said Thailand could export an overall 2 million tonnes from the new rice crop over the remainder of the year. Of the total, 1 million tonnes will be under government-to-government contracts.
       The ministry is planning to visit the Philippines to negotiate rice sales on a government-to-government basis.
       It also plans to increase rice exports via government-to-government contracts to between 2 million and 3 million tonnes next year.
       "Importing countries are placing orders to build up their stocks. Thai exporters also forecast rice prices will increase beyond the level during the food crisis of last year," the minister said, adding that jasmine rice would exceed Bt30,000 per tonne.
       The higher-price trend derives from major importing countries having faced natural disasters that direct affected their rice production.
       Yanyong Phuangrach, permanent secretary of the ministry, said the reference paddy rice for November 1-15 had been fixed.
       Jasmine rice is quoted Bt14,840 per tonne, with the price gap to compensate farmers under the government's income-guarantee project at Bt460 per tonne.
       Bt8,389 is quoted for white rice, Bt9,175 for Pathum Thani rice and Bt7,680 for sticky rice.

Rice trading schemes pushed forward

       The government is preparing to buy paddy from farmers starting early next month and will accelerate sales from its huge rice stocks through governmentto-government contracts to stabilise prices, according to Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai.
       She said the ministry would start buying paddy for the 2009-10 main crop from Nov 2, initially in Phitsanulok,Kamphaeng Phet and Nonthaburi, using 20 billion baht from the Thai Khem Kaeng economic stimulus budget.Buying prices would be based on the government's reference prices set at 8,460 baht per tonne for paddy with 15% moisture.
       In light of heavy rains during the last several weeks, local paddy prices have fallen to between 6,000 and 6,500 baht for paddy with moisture exceeding 30%.
       However, exporters said the overall Thai rice prices were not all that bad,with the benchmark Thai white rice now around 14,800 baht per tonne freeon-board, or about 8,400 to 8,500 baht per tonne for paddy of 15% moisture.
       According to Mrs Porntiva, the government plans to sell 950,000 tonnes of rice from its stocks through governmentto-government deals in the remaining two months of this year and would release another 1.77 million tonnes in 2010."Our strategy is to drain rice out of the country in a bid to lift domestic prices during the harvesting season,"she said.
       The government is estimated to have the equivalent of six million tonnes of milled rice, bought from farmers in previous price intervention schemes."We plan to negotiate with several countries,including the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Iran," said Mrs Porntiva.
       On Monday, the Philippines said it was in talks to buy at least 250,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand in a governmentto-government deal.
       Thailand was expected to produce around 23.5 million tonnes of rice from its main crop.
       The government had planned to end its rice-buying intervention in favour of a scheme under which it would subsidise farmers without buying grain itself.However, it has been forced to run both schemes in parallel in the face of farmers'protests.
       Mrs Porntiva said to lift rice exports next year, the government planned closer partnerships with private exporters to negotiate with potential buyers including Nigeria, Angola, Libya and Algeria. As of Oct 26, Thailand had exported 7.065 million tonnes of rice worth $4.06 billion. Volume was down 20.7%with value dropping 25.9% from the same period last year.

Sugar sale pending

       Thai Cane and Sugar Corp will sell 120,000 tonnes of raw sugar tomorrow. The amount includes 60,000 tonnes for delivery between March and May 15,2011 and the same volume for shipment between May and July 15,2011, according to Surat Thadachawasakul,general manager of the state-owned company.
       The company each year offers 400,000 tonnes of so-called quota-B sugar for sale to trading firms under long-term contracts. The auction tomorrow will be the first tender round of the 2010-11 crushing season.
       Raw sugar for March delivery was trading on Monday at 21.63 cents a pound in New York, down from a 28-year high of 25.43 cents on Sept 30.

INEFFICIENCY THREATENS THAI FARM PRODUCTS UNDER AFTA

       Three major Thai farm goods - coffee beans, rice and palm oil - will lose their competitiveness under the Asean Economic Community if farmers and the government neglect to increase productivity and cut production costs, researchers warned yesterday.
       A study by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce's International Trade Study Centre showed those three goods stood to lose a combined US$60 million (Bt2 billion) to other Asean countries after liberalisation once the Asea Free Trade Agreement (Afta) comes into effect next year.
       Cenyre director Art Pisanwanich said present inefficiency in productivity, logistics and cost management would hurt the competitiveness of Thai farm products under Afta.
       "Although overall exports of major farm goods will increase following trade liberalisation, the market share of Thai exports in other Asean countries will decrease, because Thailand is inefficient when it comes to productivity and cost management," said Aat.
       Thai farmers must urgently develop their productivity, in order to ensure their competitiveness within Asean. They must also decrease costs for production and lofistics and diversify from commodities to high-value-added goods.
       The government should draw up a strategy to strengthen agricultural practices - one that not only promotes higher prices via intervention schemes, but also development of productivity.
       Aat said that local rice productivity was the lowest among Asean countries. For example, in this year's crop, the yield per rai for rice is 452 kilograms in Thailand, 579kh in Laos and Malaysia, 611kg in the Philippines, 787kg in Indonesia and 792kg in Vietnam.
       Local coffee beans will be hardest hit by Vietnam. Thailand's Asean market share of the product will decline 0.1 per cent, or US$200,000 (Bt6.68 million), to Vietnam's benefit between next year and 2015.
       Thailand's export market share in Asean for coffee beans is now 2.8 per cent, while Vietnam commands 61.1 per cent.
       Rice, Thailand's major export crop, will also lose to Vietnam. About 0.5 per cent of the market share, worth $13 million, will pass to that country. For palm oil, 2.6 per cent of the market share, worth $46 million, will go to Malaysia.
       At president, Thai rice exports crop, will also lose to Vietnam. About 0.5 per cent of the market share, worth $13 million, will pass to that country. For palm oil, 2.6 per cent of the market share, worth $46 million, will go to Malaysia.
       At present, Thai rice exports have a 28.9-per-cent market share within Asean, while Vietnam enjoys 71.1 per cent. Thai palm oil has a 6.4-per-cent market share in Asean, while Malaysia commands 34.4 per cent.
       Tapioca will be the only major Thai agricultural export to enjoy a higher market share within Asean, increasing 0.1 per cent, or $5,000.
       Import tariffs on rice and palm oil, which are 5 per cent now, will be elimated next year. Thailand's tariff on coffee beans will be reduced from 30 per cent to 20 per cent next year and then 5 per cent in 2015, because the Kingdom classifies coffee beans as a sensitive product.
       Chainant Ukosakul, vice chairman of the unversity's committee on trade rules and international trade, questioned whether Thailand was ready for free trade in Asean, saying the government had no sustainable or integrated plans for developing agriculture.
       He urged the government to draw up plans to develop the various farm sectors and improve efficiency in custom procedures, in order to serve trade liberalisation under the AEC next year.

Food security is first priority

       Statistics released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in a new report said that worldwide a record one billion people are now going hungry. According to the UN food agency,30 countries now require emergency aid, including 20 in Africa.
       Jacques Diouf, director-general of the FAO, said:"In the fight against hunger the focus should be on increasing food production. It's common sense ... that agriculture would be given the priority, but the opposite has happened." Mr Diouf was speaking of the situation in countries which have been hard hit by food shortages, where the trend since the mid-1980s has been reduced foreign aid and private investments earmarked for agriculture.But his words deserve attention even in countries where food security is taken for granted, like Thailand. We should not forget how important a thriving agricultural sector is to the well-being of the country, more so even than a thriving property sector, whose problems get much more newsprint.
       To maintain a thriving agricultural sector it is necessary to assure farmers they will be able to get a fair and sufficient price for their produce. Toward that end it is encouraging that Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu pledged last week to quickly finish work he has begun in the agricultural sector before he is transferred to a new post in the PM's Office. This work includes guidelines for crop insurance and other supplementary measures to help shore up crop prices in case market prices fall.
       Mr Korbsak said the supplementary measures might include traditional price intervention or a pledging scheme for particular areas or provinces.This is a good start, but unlike in the past, these schemes must be kept totally transparent.
       Another area that needs careful attention is how to protect farmers from the adverse effects of trade liberalisation, such as that which will take effect among Asean member countries on Jan 1,2010.
       Many farmers are barely getting by as it is and the nation cannot afford to leave them to the mercy of market mechanisms.

SMALL FARMERS URGED TO AVOID TAKING BIG RISKS

       Tongchai Kongkalai is training farmers at his Nakhon Nayok learning centre about the need to adopt self-sufficiency principles set down by His Majesty the King.
       "During this time of great economic crisis, we need to learn from past mistakes. The most dangerous thing farmers can do is go deep into debt."
       "No one told me about such troubles. But I had followed the advice given by big firms telling me to over invested on a single cash crop."
       "That's set me back by more than Bt10 million," he says. Even after paying off monthly to the banks the past five years, Im still in debt?"
       "No one tells you to start small or adopt measures to safeguard land," he says. "When a farmer loses his land, he loses everything, which is what many corporations want."
       The proverb: To enslave people, one must first make them dependent,- rings true in the marketplace where monopoly is the end game for many big organisations.
       "I tell farmers to be wary of corporations and government agencies that unwittingly act on their behest."
       At times Tongchai seems to be mouthing ideas that belong to the far left, one observer at the centre notes.
       "But he's just endoring what many Western scientists are now openly advocating in public," he adds.
       From the terrible mistakes of focusing on just one type of potato crop, farmers were reduced to being pawns of a large supply chain.
       The scheme puts them at the mercy of pesticide producers to combat the diseases that befall these selected crops.
       If they had diversified and planted other potato species, the BBC says recently in a documentary, farmers could have better endured such a crisis.
       Corporations such as Monsanto had shown in past years that its genetically modified rice is aimed at helping themselves first.
       Where Indian rice planters reacted angrily to a ploy that would make them forever dependant on the rice seeds that do not replicate, the danger of overly trusting big business becomes abundantly clear.
       Moral and ethical issues are at the core of Tongchai's approach.
       "Wise farmers would do well to avoid using methods recommended by big suppliers such as investing too much in buying land.
       The more one grows, the more chemicals and fertilisers these suppliers can sell, he says.
       This cycle of induced poverty has been repeated the past many decades, he says. "It's time to stop listening to them and start thinking for ourselves."
       The more economical way to farm is to grow the most natural crops such as rice and fruits.
       "Local crops do not carry the tariffs imposed on foreign imports."
       "The key is to diversify, grow many items and weather periods of poor prices for certain goods.
       "Just one rai of farm land is sufficient to start with.
       "Farmers need not borrow so much money. They should only expand after their icomes grow.
       "My troubles started when I took out a loan for Bt10 million.
       "If someone had told me about the risks, I would have started small and be a rich man today.
       "In rhe first two years, my income was quite good. In the third year, prices collapsed."
       "I now tell others not to be so follish. Also they should raise domestic species and not imported types.
       "Imported hogs need air-conditioning," he explains.
       "The cost of the air conditioners as well as 24-hour electricity charges will put many in the poor house," he warns.
       Tongchai is taking part in a government plan to assist poor farmers using the self-sufficiency programme.
       The scheme aims to help 80,000 communities.
       So far 20,000 applications have qualified for funding.
       Each will receive several hundred thousand baht, depending on their respective scale.
       The scheme has a budget for Bt20-billion.

Farmers watch talks closely

       Leaders of the Assembly of the Poor say they will rally their members and set up camp in Bangkok to press their demands if nothing comes of planned talks with the government.
       Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has promised to renew talks aimed at solving members of the assembly's problems within the next two weeks.
       Mr Abhisit made the promise on Saturday at the assembly's northeastern headquarters in Phibun Mangsahan district here, where he handed over a cheque for 1.2 million baht to Hai Khanjantha.
       Mrs Hai, an assembly member, fought for 32 years for compensation for her land submerged as part of the Huay La Ha reservoir at tambon Na Tan.
       Land issues make up the bulk of the assembly's demands: rights for landless farmers, security for the poor being forced from their traditional forest homes and compensation for those affected by major government projects.
       "If there is no progress at the talks,we will move from here to set up makeshift tents at Government House to pressure the government to pay serious attention to our problems," said Somkiat Phonphai, a founding member of the assembly.
       The group will discuss the planned demonstration tomorrow.
       Mr Somkiat said the protest was probably "the only way out" to make the government pay attention to villagers'problems and put them in the public spotlight.
       He said each village had its own budget to support the rally and the assembly would also receive donations from supporters. The demonstration would not involve politics, he said.
       Another Assembly of the Poor leader,Paijit Sirarak, said the group had been calling for justice from successive governments since 1996.
       Many problems that should have been solved have been ignored, such as helping those affected by the Pak Moon dam in Khong Chiam district in Ubon Ratchathani.
       "The Democrat-led government should no longer leave other problems unresolved," Mr Paijit said.
       "The case of Grandma Hai is just one problem among many which the government has yet to address."
       Assembly members are worried about the prime minister's sincerity and seriousness in solving their problems.
       "After the prime minister left, we thought very hard about it because we're afraid that we will be used as a political tool of politicians to seek votes," said Boonmee Khamruang, a member of the assembly.

GOVT TO RENEW TALKS WITH ASSEMBLY OF POOR, PM VOWS

       Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will renew talks with the Assembly of the Poor in the next two weeks to solve their problems, he said yesterday.
       Members of the assembly met the prime minister at a learning centre in Phibun Mangsahan district, also the assembly's headquarters in the Northeast. He handed over a 1.2 million baht cheque to farmer Grandma Hai Khanjantha for the loss of opportunity she suffered over 32 years, after her land was submerged by the Huay La Ha reservoir, built as part of a new dam.
       "I will hold talks with you [the Assembly of the Poor] in the next two weeks.
       PM's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey accompanied the prime minister to the province.
       Mr Abhisit said he had asked Mr Sathit to oversee the assembly's problems.
       The government was drafting a regulation on community land title deeds,allowing communal use of state land,he said.
       To solve the plight of farmers generally, the government and assembly met for talks three times in June and July.
       "The government has succeeded in solving only the case of Grandma Hai.Other problems have yet to be solved,"said Sawat Uppahat, a member of the assembly.
       The problems include a drastic drop in the number of fish in the Moon River caused by construction of the Pak Moon Dam in Khong Chiam district,and land disputes between villagers and state agencies. Sompong Viengchan, a villager hit by construction of the dam, said the government should order the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to open the dam's sluice gates permanently to let fish from the Mekong River come in.
       At the moment it opens four months a year.
       "We want our lives back. The dam has ruined our livelihoods for over a decade," said Mrs Sompong.
       Farmers wanted the government to provide 15 rai of land for each family and grant them compensation.
       Thongcharoen Srihatham, another member of the assembly, warned the prime minister not to use the people's problems as a political tool to seek votes. Shortly after the prime minister left, about 1,000 red shirt protesters rallied at the centre. They swore, burned a coffin, and threw a bag of fermented fish at his poster.

Farmers claim rice seeds adulterated

       Farmers in the Northeast are claiming they have been supplied with substandard Hom Mali rice seeds by the Agriculture Ministry, the opposition Puea Thai Party says.
       Anudit Nakorntap, a Puea Thai MP for Bangkok, yesterday said the party's anti-corruption team had received complaints from farmers in northeastern provinces claiming they had been given Hom Mali rice seeds adulterated with lower-quality rice seeds.
       Mr Anudit said the seeds were distributed as part of the ministry's toxicfree Hom Mali rice production promotion scheme.
       Fifty-thousand sacks of Hom Mali rice seeds weighing 1,250 tonnes had been supplied to farmers this year and grown on about 300,000 rai, he said.
       The seeds were handed out in April to farmers, mainly in Yasothon and Udon Thani, by government coalition MPs.
       They planted the rice but found about half their crops produced grains early,Mr Anudit said.
       The early grain production yielded low quality rice and the farmers could not harvest it because not all their rice was producing grains at the same time.
       Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Theera Wongsamut said the rice scheme had been proposed and implemented by former Yasothon governor Khachornsak Singhatokul, not by the ministry.
       The provincial administration office handled the rice seeds purchase worth 26 million baht. He had asked the Rice Department to look into the opposition's claims.
       DNA testing could prove whether the rice seeds were genuine, he said.
       Prasert Gosalvitra, the Rice Department director-general, said he would order the Bureau of Rice Seeds to investigate.