Commerce Minister Mingkwan orders checks
on government rice stockpiles
By Jon Fernquest |
Today's Bangkok Post business section ran a story on the Commerce Ministry's announcement of a nationwide survey of government rice stocks.
Rice supplies are tight, prices are rising, and the second rice crop this year declined from previous years.
Recent sell-offs of government rice by the warehouses entrusted to store the rice to places as far away as China without obtaining permission beforehand have made the news recently. [Read recent Bangkok Post article]
Here is today's article in full:
Tuesday March 11, 2008
Stock checks ordered to detect rice hoarding
PHUSADEE ARUNMAS
Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan yesterday ordered a blanket survey of the government's rice stockpile nationwide and threatened to take legal action if grain was found missing.
Mr Mingkwan asked provincial commercial officials, Internal Trade officers, the Public Warehouse Organisation and others to report their findings by next Monday. "Rice prices are currently fairly high and rising. The survey is a must to make sure that the government's stockpile is still intact," he said.
Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Rice Exporters Association, said the stock survey could be a signal that the ministry may be planning to do something to address rising rice prices.
"We expect that the government is planning to release its stockpile, particularly for 5% white rice and low-grade rice which is used to produce animal feeds and noodles, to help local consumers," he said.
Deputy Commerce Minister Wiroon Techapaiboon said last week he would propose auctioning about 700,000 tonnes of rice in government stockpiles to help ease tight supplies, as the release of second-crop output is still relatively small.
According to Mr Chookiat, Thai rice exports are expected to remain tight this year, despite the release of second-crop paddy until early next month.
Thailand's rice production is forecast at 29.9 million tonnes of paddy this year, 23.38 million tonnes of which would come from the first crop, up 2.4% from last year, and another 6.5 million tonnes, a marginal decline, from the second crop.
(Source: bangkok Post, business section, page B2, Phusadee Arunmas, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
sell-offs - the selling of something
trust - belief that someone is honest and sincere and will not do anything to harm you
entrusted to store the rice - given the job of storing rice which requires trust (trust the warehouse not to secretly sell the rice for a profit when the government isn't looking)
detect - find, discover
hoarding - secretly storing large quantities of something in low supply (See glossary)
blanket - covering everything, everything included
a blanket survey - surveying and checking everything
a stockpile - large quantities stored for future use (See glossary)
release its stockpile - sell or distribute the large quantities stored to the public
take legal action - start a legal case to deal with a problem, either seek criminal punishment or win money to cover loss
Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) - the Thai government agency in charge of storing rice that farmers have pledged to the government under the crop mortgage scheme
crop mortage schemes - when farmers give the government rice in exchange for receiving a price at or above the current market price, the farmers can usually reclaim the rice in the future if they benefit from even higher rice prices, or they can can just leave the rice with the government
still intact - still exists unchanged; has not been damaged, changed, or removed
do something to address Y - take action to solve problem Y
auctioning X - a public sale with buyers offering competitive prices (See The Economist glossary on auctions and Wikipedia on auctions)
ease tight supplies - take action to increase low supplies
exports remain tight - low supply of exports
marginal - small and not so important
a marginal decline - a small and unimportant decline
