Rice Cartel

[Polly]

30 Apr, 2008 15:59:20

Mekong nations to form OPEC-style rice cartel: Thai PM

BANGKOK, April 30, 2008 (AFP) - Thailand's prime minister said Wednesday his country had agreed in principle to form a rice price-fixing cartel with Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia as costs of the staple grain rocket.
The grouping of Mekong nations would be similar to the oil cartel OPEC, and would be called the Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC).
"I have talked with Myanmar and invited them to join the rice exporting countries cartel, which will include Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, to fix the price," Premier Samak Sundaravej told reporters.

He said Myanmar's Prime Minister General Thein Sein, in Thailand for an official visit, had agreed to join, even through the military-ruled nation was not currently a large rice exporter.

"Thailand will help them in terms of technical support to improve their production for export," Samak said.

Samak said Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia had also agreed to join, and Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said OREC should begin meeting soon.

Thailand is the world's largest rice exporter, and shipped an estimated 9.5 million tonnes of rice overseas last year.

World rice prices have soared this year, a trend blamed on higher energy and fertiliser costs, greater global demand, droughts, the loss of rice farmland to biofuel plantations, and price speculation.

International demand for Thai rice has soared after other top exporters Vietnam and India imposed limits on exports to ensure domestic supply.

Thailand has repeatedly insisted it will not limit exports, but on Tuesday the government announced it was releasing its stockpile of 2.1 million tonnes into the domestic market to keep prices stable.

The benchmark Thai variety, Pathumthani fragrant rice, was priced last Wednesday at 998 dollars per tonne for export, up from 512 dollars a tonne in January this year, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said in a price survey.

http://www.lbo.lk/fullstory.php?newsID=1161739573&no_view=1&SEARCH_TERM=35

[Polly]

BBC's take is very different.  Is OPEC then a cartel against humanity?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7379368.stm

[The Smoking Man]

Nobody has mentioned the stranglehold of Monsanto on the genetically produced varieties of rice that do not produce seed crops since they will not germinate.

Monsanto has been doing this for decades with wheat, rice and a variety of other staple crops.

They and other seed producers have even successfully banned the growth and farming of some natural seed crops in favour of their genetically produced varieties.

Potatoes are one I can think of offhand.

I had a friend in Canada who was a part of an underground movement who exchanged seeds to maintain these crops.

Have any of you ever seen Broccoli for example??? Real broccoli ... not these thick stemmed we have today?

When Birdseye created the frozen food industry, only peas could be successfully frozen. What has happened to our supplies of vegetables when almost all can be frozen now?

Who owns the patent on your dinner and can the average farmer grow it two years in a row without buying new seed each year?

[The Smoking Man]

Monsanto: http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/companies/monsanto.html

I especially like the Monsanto lawsuit against farmers who saved seed from their crops of roundup ready Soyabeans:
http://www.albionmonitor.com/cgi-bin/ksearch/ksearch.cgi?terms=w:all:monsanto