Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand dropped plans to create a Southeast Asian rice cartel on May 6 and offered to host a meeting of top rice exporting countries with the aim of boosting supplies and yields amid rising worries on global food crisis, local media reported.
“Thailand will not become a leader to push for the establishment of rice cartel as rice is a sensitive issue,” the country’s Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattaman was cited by the Bangkok Post as saying.
The issue should be better addressed by United Nations agencies such as the UN Conference on Trade and Development or the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), he added. “If Thailand was going to set up a rice cartel to fix the price, that would worsen food security.”
The Thai diplomat, instead, gave an idea of setting up an international agency to share information on rice production and productivity, called the “Council on Rice Trade Cooperation” instead of a price-setting body.
The proposal to create an OPEC-like cartel was first floated by Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. It has met with objections from rice importing countries on fears that producers would dictate rice prices and supply in the world market, according to the Thai news agency.
Minister Noppadon said Thailand proposed holding a meeting on rice in the next month or two that will bring together officials from top Asian rice exporters including India, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Pakistan. The exporting countries would discuss sharing of technology, market information and price information, he said.- Enditem
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