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Leave rice importing to a rational market
Thai rice woes rebound on crisis-hit government
China raises state purchasing prices for rice
Thai Rice Farmer Issue Takes Center Stage
Rice Tumbling as Thailand’s Unpaid Farmers Urge Reserve Sale (2)
Thailand in political limbo with vote re-runs seen in April
Vietnam's rice export revenue plunges 30.5 pct in first month
Kalinga 2013 rice production up by 3.5%
NACC denies dragging feet on rice-pledging case against Yingluck
Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- Feb 11
Myanmar rice companies benefit from Thai expertise
Fire at Lop Buri rice warehouse
Farmers to receive B712m in overdue rice payments

NEWS DETAILS:
Leave rice importing to a rational market
By Rudy Romero | Feb. 11, 2014 at 12:01am
It‘s very sad that a commodity that is at the center of the daily life of nearly all Filipinos is
forever being bedeviled by the worst concomitants of import transactions. I am referring to
rice.The stories that have been appearing in the media during the last few weeks have a
distinctively déjà vu quality to them. The charge that Bureau of Customs corruption and
inefficiency are causing 50,000 metric tons of rice to be brought into the Philippines
illegally every week, the allegation that David Tan/Davidson Bangayan is the No. 1 rice

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smuggler into this country and the accusation that the illegal rice import trade is known to and orchestrated by
the leadership of the Department of Agriculture have repeatedly been lead stories in the print and broadcast
media.
It‘s absolutely incredible—not to say unacceptable—that the Philippines has acquired the title of the world‘s
No. 1 rice importer. Two of the leading world rice research institutions—International Rice Research Institute
and University of the Philippines Los Banos—are located in this country. Three million hectares of farmland
are planted to rice and corn. There is generally good weather for rice culture, and the administrative
infrastructure—DA, National Food Authority and Bureau of Plant Industry—has long been in place. Yet this
country is perennially short of the staple of the Filipino diet.One of the first things that the incumbent Secretary
of Agriculture promised when he came into office was rice self-sufficiency by 2013. When that didn‘t
materialize, Proceso Alcala blamed—you guessed it—the weather. Never mind that none of this country‘s
principal rice-growing areas—Central Luzon, Cagayan Valley, Panay and Western Mindanao—were devastated
by typhoons. Typhoons offer an excellent excuse for the recurrent failure to generate rice self-sufficiency.

A good case can be made for the proposition that abundance of farmland, by eroding the need to achieve high
productivity, operates to keep rice yields low. This thesis has been validated by Japan and Taiwan, where
scarcity of arable land has compelled rice farmers to be as efficient as possible. Philippine per-hectare yields are
among the lowest in East Asia.Little wonder that the Philippines is a virtually permanent fixture in East Asia‘s
rice market. Japan, Taiwan and Thailand have long been exporters to the Philippines, but in recent times
Vietnam, whose rice fields were extensively napalmed by US warplanes and Myanmar, have joined the list of
suppliers.In the Philippine context, rice is at once a socio-political and economic commodity The outcomes of
many national elections and re-elections have been placed at risk by reports of actual or threat of rice
insufficiency.

Political parties seeking to retain or gain power always ensure that they have enough rice to distribute among
their supporters prior to, and especially immediately before, Election Day.That is the consumer side of the rice
issue. Because sharp rises in rice prices resulting from inadequate supply can create social and political
instability enough to bring down governments, the consumer aspect of the rice issue can be considered more
important than the production aspect.Which brings me to the nasty business called rice importing.In the postWorld War II era, the importation of rice has alternated between an exclusive prerogative of the government
rice agency—first the National Rice and Corn Authority, then the National Grains Authority and now NFA—to
a private-sector activity requiring prior government approval.One of the members of the Senate Committee on
Agriculture and Food, Ralph Recto, unfortunately displayed insufficient knowledge of history when, in the
course of the recent Tan/Bangayan hearings, he declared that the authority to import rice should again be
limited to NFA. This country‘s history has abundantly shown that government instrumentalities empowered to
undertake commercial and economic activities usually end up over-purchasing, price manipulating and

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receiving kickbacks, and the records of NFA and its predecessors are replete with reports of investigations of,
and the filing of charges against, officials and employees of the national rice agency. Are we a nation of
masochists, Senator?
Good economics dictates that commercial and economic activities be left to the free market, with every
player—buyer, seller and distributor—going about their buying, selling and distributing operations solely on the
basis of whether the interplay of costs, prices and risks will give rise to profits or losses. The market,
functioning without constraints and distortions, decides who makes money and who loses money. A market
player who has a profitable operation will stay in the business, and a losing market player will get out of
it.Unfortunately, this country cannot have a rational rice trading system because of the distortions and
limitations that I adverted to earlier. The chief limitation is the towering presence of NFA—as a regulator and
as an importer—in an already-muddled market. A thorough reassessment of the role of the NFA is long
overdue.But by far the most serious disrupter of this country‘s rice production and distribution system is the
corruption and inefficiency of the Bureau of Customs.
There can be no more serious indictment of the BoC than its inability to say whether David Tan and Davidson
Bangayan are one and the same person and whether that person is the No. 1 smuggler of rice into this
country.The Secretary of Agriculture notwithstanding, the Philippines can be self-sufficient in rice and stop
being the world‘s No.1 importer of that commodity. The late, great Secretary Arturo Tanco in the 1970s proved
that it could be done. It can be done again.The government must do a number of things to bring this country‘s
rice sector to a state of economic rationality. It can resolutely clean up the Bureau of Customs. It can rationalize
the mandate of NFA. It can improve the technical and physical infrastructure of the rice-growing areas.But one
thing that government must not do is restore NFA to the rice import business. Leave that activity to a market
freed of the distortions created by BoC and the government rice agency. By themselves, businessmen will make
the profits or incur the losses from rice importing.
E-mail: rudy_v_romero@yahoo.com

Thai rice woes rebound on crisis-hit government
By AIDAN JONES, Agence France-PresseFebruary 12, 2014 2:21pm

BANGKOK - Angry farmers, a rice mountain and a slew of corruption allegations—a flagship policy that
helped propel Thailand's premier to power now threatens to boomerang on her embattled government.Prime
Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is struggling to steer the Southeast Asian nation through a policy vacuum created
by a chaotic general election earlier this month.A controversial rice subsidy scheme, which paid farmers up to
50 percent above market rates, helped her sweep to power in 2011 but now appears to be unraveling.Critics say
the program has incubated massive corruption, drained the public finances, dislodged the kingdom as the
world's top rice exporter and created an estimated 18 million-tonne stockpile of the grain.Hundreds of farmers

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have protested recently in Bangkok to demand payment after the government ran short of cash to buy their
pledged crops late last year, adding to pressure on Yingluck, who has faced months of opposition rallies.
The cabinet earmarked nearly $22 million Tuesday for about 3,900 farmers but, in a sign of the policy
constraints it faces, the payments must be approved by the Election Commission.An estimated one million
farmers nationwide are owed money, according to the Thailand Development Research Institute, which says the
government may need to find $3.6 billion to catch up with payments.Thailand sought to recoup the money paid
to farmers by hoarding rice to drive up prices on world markets, but it was unable to find buyers after rival
producers such as India and Vietnam unexpectedly boosted their shipments.The Thai Rice Exporters
Association forecasts the kingdom will sell 7.5 million tonnes overseas this year, down more than 30 percent
compared with 2011."The whole Thai rice industry fell apart and the reputation it had enjoyed in the world
market as a reliable supplier of good quality rice is gone," said TDRI's Ammar Siamwalla.
Cooking the books?
The government has not revealed the exact annual cost of the scheme, but the TDRI says estimates range from
$4.6 billion to $6 billion—roughly six-eight percent of the annual budget.The ruling Puea Thai party denies the
government has run out of money and has defended the scheme as an effort to lift rural Thais out of poverty.
Yingluck blames opposition demonstrators—who disrupted the February 2 election—for leaving her caretaker
administration with limited power to raise funds.Until voting is held in dozens of protest-hit constituencies,
there are not enough MPs to appoint a new government even if Yingluck's party wins."We are trying to solve
the problem as best we can... but the banks will not approve loans," Yingluck told reporters on Tuesday."The
government's financial and monetary status is good."A deal to sell one million tonnes of stockpiled grain to a
Chinese state firm recently collapsed after a Thai anti-corruption panel announced graft charges against several
government officials linked to the scheme.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has launched a probe into possible negligence of duty by
Yingluck in connection with the flagship policy—a move that could potentially result in her
impeachment.Opposition politician Warong Dechgitvigrom, who submitted the graft complaint to the NACC,
alleges that the scheme lured many mills to increase their inventory with sub-standard grain from Cambodia and
Myanmar.Warong said he had evidence that fabricated deals—purportedly to sell rice to overseas
governments—enabled local shell companies to buy rice at bargain prices from the scheme to re-sell on the
domestic market at the expense of taxpayers."Every process within the rice scheme has been corrupt," he told
AFP.

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"The farmers are poor... exports have collapsed and the quality of Thai rice is bad," added Warong. "I think this
is near the end for Yingluck."
Coming to boil
Voters in the northeastern region of Isaan, home to a third of the population, have helped bring three successive
governments backed by Yingluck's billionaire family to office—the first in 2001 led by her elder brother
Thaksin.Failure to pay farmers could erode that "traditionally arch-loyal rural base", said Paul Chambers,
director of research at the Institute of South East Asian Affairs at Chiang Mai University in northern
Thailand.But the impact on the government's popularity remains unclear.In the northeastern province of Udon
Thani, farmer Mali Khampimaan blamed the opposition demonstrators for the $750 she is owed for rice
delivered in November."The banks won't pay because of the protests," said Mali. "But we still need the
money." —Agence France-Presse

China raises state purchasing prices for rice
(Xinhua)Updated: 2014-02-11 17:33

BEIJING China's top economic planner said Tuesday it would raise the minimum statepurchasing prices for rice in major
farming areas by up to 3.3 percent this year.The state purchasing prices for early and mid-andlate indica rice will be raised to 2.7 yuan($44.3) per kg and 2.76 yuan per kg, while that for japonica rice will be
set at 3.1 yuan per kg, theNational Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in an online statement.
The move is aimed to "protect farmers' enthusiasm in growing grain and boost output," theNDRC said.Ensuring
food security remains one of the government's major priorities this year."Taking control of its own bowl is a fu
ndamental principle the government must stick to over along period of time," according to China's first policy d
ocument of 2014, which centers on ruralreform.Last year, China's grain output gained 2.1 percent year on year t
o hit 601.94 million tons,marking the 10th consecutive year for increased production.However, despite the bum
per harvest, analysts have cautioned of challenges China faces tomeet the growing demand of its billionplus population, including shrinking arable land amid thecountry's urbanization drive and land pollution due to
excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers.To ensure grain security, the Chinese government has pledged to spee
d up the transfer of ruralland and offer more subsidies to family farms and farmers' cooperatives in an effort to d
eveloplarge-scale farming.

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Thai Rice Farmer Issue Takes Center Stage
Thailand's cabinet approves a $22 million payment under its rice-subsidy program, only about 0.6% of the total
amount promised to rice farmers by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The WSJ's Warangkana Chomchuen
about the growing tensions.

Rice Tumbling as Thailand’s Unpaid Farmers Urge Reserve Sale (2)
By Supunnabul Suwannakij and Chanyaporn Chanjaroen February 11, 2014
Thai rice farmer Pakasit Jamjaras usually spends his days tilling soil, just like his forefathers. Now he‘s been
harvesting signatures instead of grain, with a petition to King Bhumibol Adulyadej because the government
hasn‘t paid for his crop in five months.―We are heavily indebted,‖ Pakasit, a 47-year-old father of three, said by
telephone from Phichit province, about 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Bangkok. ―We need to repay
suppliers of fertilizers and others.‖Thailand, once the world‘s biggest exporter, is short of funds to help growers
under Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra‘s 2011 program to buy the crop at above-market rates. After the
government built record stockpiles big enough to meet about a third of global import demand, exports and
prices have dropped, farmers aren‘t being paid, and the program is the target of anti-corruption probes. Political
unrest may contribute to slower growth in Southeast Asia‘s second-largest economy.Selling the government
inventory to pay farmers would flood the market with rice, eroding prices that in 2013 fell by the most in at
least five years, and would escalate competition for shippers in Asia, including India, Vietnam and
Cambodia.―The program is simply unsustainable and hurting the finances of the country,‖ said Concepcion
Calpe, a senior economist in Rome for the United Nations‘ Food & Agriculture Organization. ―The suspension
of the rice-pledging program will exacerbate the decline in Thai market prices as farmers enrolled in the
program increasingly fail to be paid.‖
Violent Protests
Protests against Yingluck by farmers, who blocked roads in the provinces, added to opposition in Bangkok that
led to deadly conflicts. Months of demonstrations led by Suthep Thaugsuban, a former opposition-party power
broker, paralyzed parts of the capital and disrupted a national election on Feb. 2. Yingluck heads a caretaker
administration until a new government is formed. Thailand, a constitutional monarchy since 1932, had nine

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coups since 1946, when King Bhumibol assumed the throne.The price of Thai 5-percent broken white rice, a
benchmark grade, tumbled 23 percent last year and was at $456 a metric ton on Feb. 5. A slump to $370 by
March is possible as more grain is offloaded from state granaries, according to Chareon Laothamatas, president
of the Thai Rice Exporters Association. It may take about five years for the state stockpiles to be sold off,
Chareon said on Feb. 5.
Stockpiles Expand
Yingluck‘s program was intended to boost farmers‘ incomes and lift prices when it began in October 2011.
Instead, Thailand was dethroned as the top exporter as reserves surged. After exporting 10.65 million tons in
2011, shipments slid to 6.7 million last year, behind India and Vietnam, U.S. Department of Agriculture data
show. Shipments are seen at 8.5 million tons this year, the USDA forecasts.The government spent 689 billion
baht ($21 billion) in the past two crop years buying from farmers at prices that were as much as 76 percent
higher than current market rates. The USDA expects that Thai inventories will reach a record 14.7 million tons
this year, compared with 6.1 million in 2010.As stockpiles grew, so did the strain on government finances.
Moody‘s Investors Service said in June losses from rice subsidies were credit negative for Thailand‘s sovereign
rating. The International Monetary Fund, the global lender based in Washington, urged the government in
November to replace the policy, saying that it was hurting confidence in public finances. Kittiratt Na-Ranong,
Thailand‘s finance minister at the time, responded to the IMF‘s assessment by saying that ―the government has
our ways to help farmers.‖
Corruption Probe
The National Anti-Corruption Commission said last month it will investigate Yingluck‘s role as overseer of the
program, after finding enough evidence to charge 15 people, including former Commerce Minister Boonsong
Teriyapirom. Boonsong said Jan. 16 said that the charge was unfair and he would fight it.After the
commission‘s announcement, China‘s Heilongjiang province dropped a plan to buy 1.2 million tons from
Thailand, a sign that the probe had eroded the confidence of the buyer, caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and
Commerce Minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan said on Feb. 4.Yingluck defended the program on Feb. 6,
saying that over the past two years the government succeeded in lifting farmers‘ incomes, according to a post on
her Facebook page. Her caretaker government has limited authority, she wrote. Under the Thai constitution, a

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caretaker administration can‘t borrow new debt or commit to new loans that would obligate the next
government.
‘Impeded Payment’
―We have asked all related government agencies to solve the issues that impeded payment procedures,‖ said
Yingluck, the sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in the most recent coup in
2006 and still influences policy through the Pheu Thai party. ―The Ministry of Finance is seeking legitimate
loans under the legal restrictions for a caretaker government, while the Ministry of Commerce is auctioning
stockpiles.‖Initially, state buying was popular among growers. A 2012 survey of 1,200 farmers by the
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce found 80 percent planned to stay with the program the following
crop year. The 5 percent grade climbed to $647 in November 2011, a three-year high.Thailand may not be able
to find enough buyers for the stockpiles because major importers in Africa and the Philippines increasingly
prefer grain from Vietnam and India, said Darren Cooper, a senior economist at the International Grains
Council in London. A forecast for Thai exports at 8.2 million tons this year probably will need to be reduced,
Cooper said.
‘Pay Us’
―The government must sell rice in the stockpile to pay us,‖ said Ravee Rungruang, a leader of a farmers‘ group
in Ratchaburi province that blocked highways this month and joined other growers on Feb. 6 to protest at the
Ministry of Commerce. ―The government has ignored us.‖The protests led by Suthep, as well as the unrest from
farmers, are hurting the economy. The runup to the Feb. 2 elections that were contested by Yingluck‘s Pheu
Thai party, dragged consumer confidence to a two-year low in December and forced the government to cut its
2014 growth forecast twice in less than a month, to 3.1 percent from 5.1 percent.The Thai economy probably
expanded 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to a Bloomberg survey of six
economists, slower than a 2.7 percent gain in the previous three-month period. For the full year, GDP grew 2.8
percent, a separate survey showed.
‘Fiscal Burden’
―The Pheu Thai party gained a political stronghold from farmers because of its rice policy,‖ said Nipon
Poapongsakorn, a distinguished fellow at the Thailand Development Research Institute, who‘s studied rice since

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the mid-1990s. ―Now it‘s losing a voting base. This policy isn‘t sustainable as it damages the rice business and
causes a huge fiscal burden.‖There‘s also the risk that the government rice is in poor condition or spoiled.
Quality of the grain deteriorates after two years in storage at room temperature in Thailand, according to
Chareon, president of the exporters‘ association. He predicts inventories may reach 20 million tons this year,
and that some of the grain is already too old or ruined to be sold.―The government should let us check quality
and volume in state warehouses for transparency,‖ said Prasit Booncheuy, president of the Thai Rice Farmers
Association, whose group joined protesters at the Ministry of Commerce on the outskirts of Bangkok on Feb. 6.
―We want the commerce ministry to speed up sales from stockpiles to pay farmers.‖
Stockpile Sales
The government needs to pay 177 billion baht for about 10 million tons bought from farmers since October,
Niwattumrong, caretaker commerce minister, told reporters on Feb. 6. About 700,000 tons from the past two
years is slated for sale in auctions today and tomorrow, according to the ministry.―In the worst case, if they
decide to get rid of the program and go back to the time when there was no mortgage scheme, it will put
downward pressure on global prices,‖ said Samarendu Mohanty, senior economist at the Los Banos, Philippinebased International Rice Research Institute.A further drop in rice prices would help extend a decline in global
food costs, which fell in January to a 19-month low amid ample supplies, according to a 55-item gauge
compiled by the FAO. The measure is down 15 percent since touching a record in February 2011, and cereal
prices tracked by the FAO lost 26 percent since September 2012. Rough-rice futures in Chicago fell 0.8 percent
to $15.53 per 100 pounds over the past year.Pakasit, the farmer from Phichit, gathered about 3,000 signatures in
his plea to the 86-year-old king, whose portrait hangs in most homes and shops. Pakasit said farmers aren‘t
getting paid because of the impasse between Yingluck and her political foes, led by Suthep, and he wants the
monarch to be aware that farmers are suffering.―I want to ask the two opposing groups, ‗Can you stop
quarreling?‘‖ said Pakasit, who faces mounting interest costs on his borrowings. ―We have to call for help.‖
To contact the reporters on this story: Supunnabul Suwannakij in Bangkok at ssuwannakij@bloomberg.net;
Chanyaporn Chanjaroen in Singapore at cchanjaroen@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

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Thailand in political limbo with vote re-runs seen in April
BY AMY SAWITTA LEFEVRE
BANGKOK Tue Feb 11, 2014 12:12pm GMT

(Reuters) - Thailand's Election Commission said on Tuesday it would try to complete this month's disrupted poll in
late April, leaving the country facing another two-and-a-half months in political limbo under a caretaker government
with limited powers.Protesters have been trying since November to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whom
they see as a stand-in for her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, the self-exiled former premier who clashed with the
establishment and was ousted in a 2006 coup.
Yingluck called a general election on February 2 to try to end the demonstrations, but protesters succeeded in
disrupting the vote in about a fifth of constituencies, meaning there is not yet a quorum to open parliament and
install a new government."Voting for constituencies where elections could not take place on February 2 will take
place on April 27," Election Commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn told reporters.The protesters, who are mainly
drawn from Bangkok and the south and are backed by the royalist establishment, say former telecoms tycoon
Thaksin has commandeered a fragile democracy with populist policies to woo poor voters in rural areas, ensuring
victory for his parties in every election since 2001.
The protest group, the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), wants Yingluck to step aside, with political
and electoral reforms drawn up by a "people's council", which they hope would rid Thailand of Thaksin's influence
for good.Members of the group prevented voting in much of the south and in parts of Bangkok, strongholds of the
opposition Democratic Party, which boycotted the vote and threw in its lot with the protesters.

Vietnam's rice export revenue plunges 30.5 pct in first month
11.02.2014

Vietnam sold 307,000 tons of rice to overseas markets in the first month of 2014, pocketing 127.5 million U.S.
dollars, down 24.11 percent in volume and 30.5 percent in value, said a report by Vietnam Food Association
(VFA).E-portal of Vietnamese government quoted VFA on Tuesday as saying the country fulfilled the set plan
of exporting rice in January at low level.Under this progress, VFA forecast Vietnam to export 300,000 to
350,000 tons of rice in February, said the report.According to VFA, Vietnam's rice exports went down in
January due to the sharp decline of centralized procurement contracts from traditional markets of the
Philippines, China and Africa.
Meanwhile, in January, Vietnam's rice export prices remained basically stable. Specifically, five-percent broken
rice was sold at 405 to 410 U.S. dollars per ton, equivalent to that of Indian rice but higher than those of Thai

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and Pakistani rice due to limited supply from these exporters, said VFA report.VFA quoted local experts as
saying that they are expecting positive signals for Vietnamese rice exports in the coming time.The first good
signal came from increasing rice supply with possibilities of Vietnamese exporters to use government inventory
and harvest of winter-spring rice crop in Vietnam. The second resulted from returning demands for Vietnamese
rice from markets such as China and Africa, said VFA.

Kalinga 2013 rice production up by 3.5%
BY: LARRY LOPEZ
Tuesday 11th of February 2014
TABUK CITY, Kalinga, Feb. 11 (PIA) – Rice production in the province has increased by 3.5 percent in 2013
compared to the previous year.Provincial Rice Program Coordinator Joe Casibang reported the province
harvested 174MT in 2013 compared to 168MT in 2012. Casibang attributed the increase to continuing enhanced
agricultural interventions provided by government through the Department of Agriculture (DA).During the
period, farmer‘s average yield also improved by 2.4% or 10-15 bags, Casibang noted.Based on the record of the
Office of Provincial Agriculturist, bulk of the harvest came from irrigated rice land.Kalinga has about 20,000
hectares devoted to rice consisting of irrigated, rain fed and upland farms.Average yield is registered at 2.2MT
for irrigated, 2.01MT for rain fed and 1.66MT for upland farms. (JDP/LL-PIA CAR,Kalinga)

NACC denies dragging feet on rice-pledging case against Yingluck
February 11, 2014 4:45 pm

The National Anti-Corruption Commission Tuesday denied that it was dragging feet in the rice-pledging
investigation caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.In its emails to the media, the NACC said the
NACC would take legal actions against online users for spreading false rumours that the NACC members had
been bought so it was dragging feet to help the prime minister.The NACC has set up a panel to look into
allegations that Yingluck had committed nonfeasance for failing to stop the rice pledging scheme from causing
huge damage to the country.The NACC warned social networkkers to stop spreading rumours and said the
investigation was continuing straightforwardly in line with proper procedure and legal timeframe.

Nagpur Foodgrain Prices Open- Feb 11
Tue Feb 11, 2014 3:28pm IST
Nagpur, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Gram prices in Nagpur Agriculture Produce and Marketing Committee
(APMC) moved down on lack of demand from local millers amid poor quality arrival. Easy condition

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on NCDEX and downward trend in Madhya Pradesh gram prices also affected sentiment, according to
sources.
FOODGRAINS & PULSES
GRAM
* Gram varieties ruled steady in open market here but demand was poor.
TUAR
* Tuar Karnataka reported down in open market in absence of buyers amid increased
supply from producing regions.
* Batri dal zoomed up in open market on renewed demand from local traders amid weak
supply from producing regions.
* Major rice varieties reported down in open market on lack of demand from local
traders amid healthy supply from producing belts like Chhattisgarh and Madhya
Pradesh.
* In Akola, Tuar - 4,100-4,200, Tuar dal - 6,200-6,400, Udid at 6,000-6,300,
Udid Mogar (clean) - 7,000-6,200, Moong - 8,000-8,200, Moong Mogar
(clean) 9,400-9,600, Gram - 2,600-2,700, Gram Super best bold - 3,600-3,800
for 100 kg.
* Wheat and other commodities remained steady in open market in thin trading
activity, according to sources.
Nagpur foodgrains APMC auction/open-market prices in rupees for 100 kg
FOODGRAINS
Available prices Previous close
Gram Auction
2,500-2,730
2,550-2,790
Gram Pink Auction
n.a.
2,100-2,600
Tuar Auction
n.a.
3,900-4,000
Moong Auction
n.a.
4,400-4,600
Udid Auction
n.a.
4,300-4,500
Masoor Auction
n.a.
2,600-2,800
Gram Super Best Bold
3,800-4,200
3,800-4,200
Gram Super Best
n.a.

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Gram Medium Best
3,600-3,750
3,600-3,750
Gram Dal Medium
n.a.
n.a.
Gram Mill Quality
3,200-3,400
3,200-3,400
Desi gram Raw
3,000-3,100
3,000-3,100
Gram Filter Yellow
n.a.
n.a.
Gram Kabuli
7,900-10,300
7,900-10,300
Gram Pink
7,700-8,100
7,700-8,100
Tuar Fataka Best
6,400-6,700
6,400-6,600
Tuar Fataka Medium
6,000-6,200
6,000-6,200
Tuar Dal Best Phod
5,800-6,000
5,800-6,000
Tuar Dal Medium phod
5,400-5,700
5,400-5,700
Tuar Gavarani
4,000-4,100
4,000-4,100
Tuar Karnataka
4,200-4,300
4,250-4,350
Tuar Black
7,000-7,200
7,000-7,200
Masoor dal best
5,300-5,400
5,300-5,400
Masoor dal medium
5,000-5,200
5,000-5,200
Masoor
n.a.
n.a.
Moong Mogar bold
8,700-9,950
8,700-9,950
Moong Mogar Medium best
8,800-9,200
8,800-9,200
Moong dal super best
8,500-8,800
8,500-8,800
Moong dal Chilka
7,900-8,200
7,900-8,200
Moong Mill quality
n.a.
n.a.
Moong Chamki best
8,000-8,500
8,000-8,500
Udid Mogar Super best (100 INR/KG) 7,200-7,600
7,200-7,600
Udid Mogar Medium (100 INR/KG) 5,800-6,600
5,800-6,600
Udid Dal Black (100 INR/KG)
4,700-5,000
4,700-5,000
Batri dal (100 INR/KG)
4,000-5,000
3,800-4,600
Lakhodi dal (100 INR/kg)
3,000-3,100
3,000-3,100
Watana Dal (100 INR/KG)
3,250-3,350
3,250-3,350
Watana White (100 INR/KG)
3,200-3,300
3,100-3,200
Watana Green Best (100 INR/KG) 4,200-4,500
4,200-4,500
Wheat 308 (100 INR/KG)
1,800-1,900
1,800-1,900
Wheat Mill quality(100 INR/KG) 1,880-1,925
1,880-1,925
Wheat Filter (100 INR/KG)
1,750-1,950
1,750-1,950
Wheat Lokwan best (100 INR/KG) 2,100-2,550
2,100-2,550
Wheat Lokwan medium (100 INR/KG) 2,050-2,150
2,050-2,150
Lokwan Hath Binar (100 INR/KG) n.a.
n.a.

Cell # 92 321 369 2874

MP Sharbati Best (100 INR/KG) 3,100-3,600
3,100-3,600
MP Sharbati Medium (100 INR/KG) 2,500-2,900
2,500-2,900
Wheat 147 (100 INR/KG)
1,600-1,700
1,600-1,750
Wheat Best (100 INR/KG)
1,700-1,800
1,650-1,750
Rice BPT new(100 INR/KG)
2,800-3,200
3,000-3,500
Rice Parmal (100 INR/KG)
1,700-1,850
1,800-1,950
Rice Swarna old (100 INR/KG)
2,500-2,750
2,600-2,900
Rice Swarna new (100 INR/KG)
2,300-2,400
2,300-2,500
Rice HMT new (100 INR/KG)
3,700-4,200
3,800-4,200
Rice HMT Shriram (100 INR/KG) 4,600-4,800
4,800-5,000
Rice Basmati best (100 INR/KG) 11,000-13,500
11,000-13,500
Rice Basmati Medium (100 INR/KG) 6,300-7,600
6,300-7,600
Rice Chinnor (100 INR/KG)
5,500-5,800
5,600-5,800
Rice Chinnor new (100 INR/KG) 5,100-5,500
5,200-5,500
Jowar Gavarani (100 INR/KG)
1,400-1,600
1,400-1,600
Jowar CH-5 (100 INR/KG)
1,700-1,800
1,700-1,800
WEATHER (NAGPUR)
Maximum temp. 30.9 degree Celsius (87.6 degree Fahrenheit), minimum temp.
12.8 degree Celsius (55.0 degree Fahrenheit)
Humidity: Highest - n.a., lowest - n.a.
Rainfall : nil
FORECAST: Mainly clear sky. Maximum and Minimum temperature likely to be around 31 and 13 degree
Celsius respectively.
Note: n.a.--not available
(For oils, transport costs are excluded from plant delivery prices, but included in market prices.)

Myanmar rice companies benefit from Thai expertise
Thai rice companies are now exploring new joint venture opportunities with their Myanmar counterparts -- the
goal is to leverage on the untapped potential that Myanmar offers as a rice exporter. Myanmar was once the
world's top rice exporter, before military rule.YANGON: Rice in Myanmar is not just a staple food for its

people, it is also one of the country's key industries.
It is believed that in 2011 alone, Myanmar's rice sector contributed about 13 per cent of the country's GDP.That
GDP figure will only grow provided Myanmar partners other reputable international rice firms, like those in

Cell # 92 321 369 2874

neighbouring Thailand.Nay Lin Zin, joint secretary of the Myanmar Rice Millers' Association, said:
"Nowadays, Thailand people very interested to invest in Myanmar and to cooperate with us because of
Thailand's political instability and the price of Thai rice, (which is) higher than other competing rice exporting
countries."In recent months, many Thai rice exporters have been introducing their clients to Myanmar
companies.Kyaw Myo Htoon, director of the Ayeyar Hinthar Group of Companies, said: "Their motivation for
Thai traders is they want to maintain relationship with buyers like the Chinese, because they are very big... So
in order to do that, they bring their buyers here to introduce Myanmar rice to them.
"They help us to introduce the Myanmar rice variety
to the world market... Especially Chinese buyers,
they buy the Myanmar rice for industrial usage like
making rice noodles, making rice wine as well as
they're mixing with other varieties of rice. They mix
and sell it to Chinese consumers."Such collaborative
efforts will also enable Myanmar to learn from their
Thai partners' technological know-how, paving the
way for them to tap onto their neighbour's existing
pool of rice consumers.Nay Lin Zin added: "If the
Thailand business can cooperate with us, we can
give more money to our people, to our Myanmar
farmers and we can produce quality rice for a new market."I think after 2015 by cooperating with Thailand
business people, especially in the rice sector, I think we can promote our rice export and we can increase our
world ranking very soon."Rice traders said many are happy that Myanmar is now starting to export more rice
overseas. That is because 70 per cent of Myanmar's population live in rural areas and they are closely associated
with the rice industry.They say that if rice farmers are happy, that will snowball into other benefits, such as the
ability to purchase more expensive goods and in greater quantities.
- CNA/ac

Fire at Lop Buri rice warehouse
Warehouse fire set to destroy rotten rice, says former MP
Published: 11 Feb 2014 at 14.31
Online news: Politics

A fire 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 ricepledging scheme, former Phitsanulok Democrat
MP Warong Dejkijwikrom said.He said the
warehouse was used to store rice of the 2012 crop

Cell # 92 321 369 2874

year pledged under the scheme.The former MP predicted there would be more fires at the warehouses
where pledged rice is stockpiled, to destroy corruption evidence after farmers had vowed to raid them to
examine the quality of the rice.Yesterday's talks between representatives of farmers and the caretaker
government failed to solve the problem. The government has not been able to pay the farmers for the pledged
rice since October 2013. It now owes 130 billion baht to 1.4 million farming households.The farmers wanted to
know the exact date they would be paid but the government could not give them an answer, saying only that it
would seek 712 million baht from the central fund to pay 3,900 farmers

Farmers to receive B712m in overdue rice payments
Published: 11 Feb 2014 at 19.03
Online news: Local News

Angry farmers demanding long overdue payment for crops sold into the state rice-pledging programme in four
provinces are to receive 712 million baht from the caretaker government.
Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra smiles to reporters
before chairing a cabinet meeting at the air force head office on
Tuesday with the rice-pledging scheme on top of the agenda.
(Photo by Chanat Katanyu).The payments - which will be funded
through the central budget - were approved in a cabinet meeting at
the Royal Thai Airforce base on Tuesday - but the amount still
falls far short of the total outstanding.Farmers who sold rice into
the state pledging scheme are still owed 120 billion baht, caretaker
Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan admitted
after the meeting.According to Mr Niwatthamrong, farmers who
sold rice to the state in October have now all received their money.
Of those that joined the scheme in November, 61% have been paid, but most farmers who pledged rice in
December and January have not yet received money for their crops, he said.Around 100 Ayutthaya farmers
gather in Bang Sai district on Tuesday to show support for the rice-pledging scheme. (Photo by Suhtonrn
Pongpao).The 712 million baht budget will however be used to pay 3,921 farmers in Phetchabun, Uthai Thani,
Ayutthaya and Prachin Buri who sold 40,000 tonnes of rice to the state in September - the last month of the
2013 fiscal year.
This is because the sales have only been recorded recently - after their pledging tickets were verified, Mr
Niwatthamrong said.The meeting on Tuesday did not conclude how the caretaker government will find the rest
of the money needed to pay farmers - hundreds of whom are rallying at the Commerce Ministry to press for
payments so they can clear their debts and invest in new crops.Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
said after the meeting that she remains confident of finding finance to make the overdue payments to farmers,
adding that caretaker Finance Minister Kittiratt Na Ranong had been tasked with solving the issue.Ms Yingluck

Cell # 92 321 369 2874

insisted that the caretaker government would not ignore the plight of rice farmers. ''Farmers have been well
taken care of over the past two years that we have administered the country,'' she said.
Ms Yingluck, who chairs the National Rice Policy Committee, did not
meet farming representatives who went to negotiate rice payments with
caretaker cabinet ministers and officials led by Mr Niwatthamrong at
the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence at Muang Thong
Thani on Monday.She said she had no intention of avoiding meeting
them, but said that the officials tasked with overseeing the policy were
best placed to meet the farmers, since the talks needed to go into detail
on several points of the pledging scheme.While the caretaker
government continues to search for ways to fund rice payments, the
Lawyers Council of Thailand on Tuesday stepped up efforts to help
affected farmers.Council president Dej-udom Krairit and other lawyers met protesting farmers at the ministry
and said they would speed up action to take their cases to court.
The council issued a statement after the meeting directing council members and lawyer volunteers in all
provinces to gather evidence from farmers in their area to bring lawsuits to court with no legal fees.It called on
the local and national media to tell farmers to contact lawyers who are members of the council in their
locality.Farmers are considering both civil and criminal lawsuits against the caretaker government for its failure
to honour rice contracts and pay for produce pledged under the policy.But Ms Yingluck said lawsuits will not
speed up payments since the issue rests on negotiations between the Finance Ministry and banks or other
financial institutions willing to offer the caretaker government loans.
In Ayutthaya, around 100 farmers from 16 districts meanwhile gathered in Bang Sai district calling on the
caretaker government to continue the rice scheme, arguing that the policy has helped them out of debt and
poverty since they are no longer forced to sell their rice to millers at an unfair price.Local farmers'
representative Wichen Puanglamchiek suggested that the state pledging price should be lowered from 15,000 to
14,000 baht a tonne, to decrease the financial burden on the caretaker administration.The group also urged the
People's Democratic Reform Committee not to use rice farmers in their campaign to oust the caretaker
government.

For Advertising SPECS & RATES
Contact: Advertising Department
Mujahid Ali
mujahid.riceplus@gmail.com
+92 321 369 2874

Cell # 92 321 369 2874

11th february,2014 daily global rice e newsletter by riceplus magazine

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11th february,2014 daily global rice e newsletter by riceplus magazine