Thailand: Declining rice price a big concern for Thai farmers.

Section: General News - After the declining rice price caused severe loss for agricultural farmers, the Democrat-led government speeded up assistance through the crop mortgaging scheme which later destroyed the market mechanism as Thai rice export was at a price disadvantage in the global market.

In the crop mortgaging scheme, the government confronted a problem of stock quota limitation and stock management due to the recently implemented ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement (AFTA), which enabled more access for agricultural products to be imported from other ASEAN member countries to Thailand. As a result of this, the government will have to stock up products in huge quantities …