Thailand rice farmers demand better support as prices plummet
Thai rice farmers face a crisis as prices drop 30% year-on-year, falling to 8,600 baht per tonne. Government measures worth 1.89 billion baht aim to stabilize prices, but farmers demand guaranteed rates of 11,000 baht per tonne. Climate change, debt, and India’s export resumption worsen the situation. Protests are planned as growers struggle with rising costs.
BANGKOK: Thai government measures to support rice farmers have failed to meet expectations, with some growers in the world’s second-largest rice exporting country vowing protests as they are squeezed between falling prices and rising cultivation costs.
Padi prices have dropped by 30 per cent year-on-year to an average of about 8,600 baht per tonne this month, the Commerce Ministry said, piling pressure on the Pheu Thai party-led government to placate rice farmers — a key vote bank.
“We are not happy with the measures. I think the government is not sincere with farmers at all,” said Thitiwat Kleepmalai, a farmer leader from Ayutthaya province who had submitted his group’s demands to the government on Wednesday.
The government on Thursday announced measures worth 1.89 billion baht, including providing loans for farmers to delay padi sales, assisting with storage fees, and covering interest costs for rice mills to store the crop.
These measures, which are yet to be approved by the cabinet, are part of an effort by the government to keep padi prices above 8,000 baht per tonne, Commerce Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said.
The Ayutthaya group had asked the government to either help them sell rice at 11,000 baht per tonne, or provide a guaranteed price at the same level, as production costs are as high as 6,500 baht per tonne, Thitiwat said.
Thailand’s centuries-old rice cultivation system is under severe stress from climate change, unsustainable farm debts and a lack of innovation, despite tens of billions of dollars in subsidies over the past decade.
Thitiwat said his group will meet with other provincial farm leaders to organise a larger protest in the capital here this month, following an earlier rally.
Pui Saengnak, another farmer from Ayutthaya, said if there are no further measures, he and other rice growers will take to the streets in large numbers.
“Farmers are suffering greatly,” he said.
The resumption of rice exports by India — the world’s largest shipper of the grain — is likely to hit Thailand hard, with the commerce ministry expecting a 24 per cent year-on-year decline in rice exports to 7.5 million tonnes this year.
That will follow a 13.4 per cent rise in rice shipments to 9.95 million tonnes last year, the highest level in six years, according to the commerce ministry.
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Source : The Business Times
