Smuggling Rice to Thailand: Like Coals to Newcastle

[usual suspect]

It now seems like the millers, & warehouse-owners are about to take the stage..claiming they have not been paid yet also!
This whole story is beyond befief..if the warehouse owners & traders have indeed been skimming 1000's tons of rice & thus profiting on a grand scale..who is going to investigate them & charge them when the nation's police force only takes orders from Yingluck's (equally corrupt) government..??

[Stargeezer]

I hope that the Thai farmers realize the truth about the rice fiasco, and how the government
failed them. Prcscct, love your drawing! Maybe one day the voters in Thailand will be able to vote
without being influenced by getting paid to.

[PeteC]

Go here Stargeezer, there's pages of them and updated about every 2 days:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/special ... &pid=16874

[buksida]

Maybe one day the voters in Thailand will be able to vote without being influenced by getting paid to.

This is exactly the "democracy" that the protesters are protesting about.

[PeteC]

The news about this issue just keeps getting worse and worse.

Traders: Old rice stocks unshippable

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/new ... nshippable

[PeteC]

"......He said in the meeting that the caretaker government could not borrow money from banks because of the protestors blocked the banks......."

Comical if not so sad.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 26514.html

Get ready for increasing road blocks as the days go by.

[HHTel]

Just been watching CH3 news. Seems the government is urging the rice farmers to protest against the banks and putting pressure on the banks to lend the government the money so the farmers can be paid........unbelievable!

The farmers for their part are saying that if they don't get paid then they will break open the warehouses and take their rice back.

The farmers have moved their protest into BKK which hopefully will leave Rama II clear for traffic.

[PeteC]

More.......:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politic ... lan-stalls

[Bristolian]

A good analysis of the current situation and how government intervention in pricing of commodities, almost always fails. And in my opinion a lesson that should have been learnt from the European farming subsidies

Governments can not manage business and should not try to corner world markets.

http://asiancorrespondent.com/119381/ws ... ng-scheme/

[StevePIraq]

Can't blame anyone for not liking Thai rice, in my opinion it is totally tasteless and not a patch on good Indian Basmati rice

[Dannie Boy]

Can't blame anyone for not liking Thai rice, in my opinion it is totally tasteless and not a patch on good Indian Basmati rice

As I'm sure you're aware, there are many varieties of Thai rice and the best 100% Jasmine rice is fine with. Thai food, but nowhere near as good if you are eating say an Indian curry where IMO only basmati rice is good enough. The problem here in Thailand is that basmati is about three times more expensive than Thai rice, so it will never be popular here.

[Bristolian]

Fire at Lop Buri rice warehouse
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... -warehouse

Published: 11/02/2014 at 02:31 PM

A fire which broke out at a rice warehouse in Chai Badan district of Lop Buri province Tuesday morning was believed to be arson, intended to destroy evidence of degraded rice under the government's rice-pledging scheme, former Phitsanulok Democrat MP Warong Dejkijwikrom said.

He said the warehouse was used to store rice of the 2012 crop year pledged under the scheme.

The former MP predicted there would be more fires at the warehouses where the pledged rice is kept, an effort to destroy corruption evidence after farmers had vowed to raid them to examine the rice quality.

[PeteC]

Video...not of the fire.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/multimedia/v ... g-problems

[PeteC]

GSB stunned by B30bn deposit run

The Government Savings Bank (GSB) has decided to suspend further lending to the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) after experiencing a 30-billion-baht deposit run amid concerns the loan is being used to pay for the loss-ridden rice-pledging scheme.......

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/3 ... eposit-run

and.....

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/new ... e-run-bank

[Roel]

Funny if you think about it. (Here in Phuket understandably there was a big run on all Government Savings Bank branches). Government use loans from GSB to pay rice farmers. These loans are financed with deposits by anti-government protesters. Ergo: anti-government protesters indirectly fund the government's vote buying!