Pay more, eat less, be happy

[Falang]

Bangkok Post Sunday April 20, 2008

 

Pay more, eat less, be happy

 

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej appealed to Thais nationwide to bear up under higher costs for rice - even to eat less if necessary, because higher prices help the farmers. A poll showed they already are doing just that.

 

Speaking during his weekly TV-radio broadcast to the nation, Mr Samak said the rising cost of rice is a natural market mechanism based on supply and demand.

 

But he said all Thais should consider that higher prices mean that farmers are able to sell their rice stocks at more than double the usual price to exporters, and increase their income.

 

"'If you sacrifice and pay more for rice - a bit more, not much more - it will benefit farmers," he said. If necessary, eating a little less rice would let the farmers sell it at even higher prices for export.

 

By coincidence, a Suan Dusit Poll survey released on Sunday said Thais already have begun changing some of their eating habits.

 

A full 48 per cent of the 3,229 people surveyed told the pollsters they are buying and cooking rice according to their needs, and abandoning the old idea there is a limitless supply. They claimed they are far less likely to waste rice than in even the recent past.

 

The days when conspicuous consumers would walk away from a restaurant meal leaving abundant helpings of rice and other foods uneaten may be a thing of the past, never to return, if the poll is to be believed.

 

Nearly 41 per cent of those surveyed said rice is the main staple of the Thai diet, and the government owes it to consumers to resolve the current problem of rice price rises. But only 14 per cent bought Mr Samak's claim that farmers instead of middlemen would benefit from the sharp increase in prices.

 

Prices of high-quality khao hom mali (fragrant rice) have risen by about 50 per cent in Bangkok markets and supermarkets in the past three months, to as high as 30 baht (about $1) per kilogramme.

 

Export prices have pushed the price up. The benchmark Pathumthani fragrant rice was priced on April 9 at $956 (30,210 baht) per tonne for export, up about 50 per cent from a month earlier, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said in its price survey last week.

 

International demand for Thai rice has soared after other top exporters Vietnam and India imposed limits on exports to ensure domestic supply.

 

There was some question about Mr Samak's assertion that the farmers stand to profit, however. The last main rice harvest was late last year, long before prices started rising. A second crop was harvested in February by fewer than half the nation's rice farmers.

 

In addition, few rice farmers keep paddy for more than a few days, or perhaps a few weeks. The typical rice farmer sells his crop almost as he harvests it, and few of the 3.6 million families engaged in raising rice are likely to have seen any benefit from the rising prices so far.

 

He said on Sunday that his government understood that rising food and fuel costs were taking their toll on Thai families, and reassured people that the government was looking into ways of boosting incomes.

 

For one thing, the government is currently negotiating with "neighbouring countries" to import cheap fertiliser to help cut the cost of production for paddy farmers. He also vowed to crack down on those responsible for producing counterfeit fertiliser. (BangkokPost.com)

 

Next he will ask Thais to eat only khao niaw so that Thailand can export more khao hom mali.

 

I bet you that the farmers will not receive 1 satang more for their harvest.

 

Is this prime minister for real or what?

 

What's next? The prime minister asking Thais to go take a dump in the paddyfields to give farmers free fertilizer.

[Faustian]

Indeed...eat less so me and my friends can get richer....he's quite the craziest in a long line of crazies.

[Flashermac]

Thaksin picked him so he would look sort of normal.

 

 

<< Next he will ask Thais to eat only khao niaw so that Thailand can export more khao hom mali. >>

 

I've never tried dunking sticky rice into dtom yam. Kind of messy with most curries.

 

 

 

 

[Flashermac]

Today's Nation has Samak slamming Chuan for saying Samak shouldn't have become leader of PPP when he had charges pending against him.

 

Samak's reply is that Chuan's [color:orange]BROTHER[/color] had been charged with fraud, but that didn't stop Chuan from becoming the Democrat party leader.

 

 

 

 

 

[Torneyboy]

Tit for tat ...TIT

[Mentors]

Samak should going back to his TV kitchen