Short-sighted populist policies and massive corruption have caused severe damage to Thai rice in only six years. That's the opinion of Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Export Association, who recently lamented that Thai rice has lost favour in the world market while other producers such as Vietnam and Burma are catching up fast.

He said during a recent seminar with a group of agricultural reporters that the populist rice-pledging programme was a main factor in crippling the competitiveness of Thai rice. A number of farmers have produced low quality rice in high volume because they have been attracted by the unusually high price the government offers through the pledging programme. Many have compromised the quality of their rice because they expect to get quick returns.

According to Chookiat, Thai rice exports dropped by 30 per cent in the first half of this year, while Vietnamese rice exports grew by 56 per cent over the same period.

A major reason for the fall in Thai rice exports is lower quality, according to Chookiat. Some farmers decided to cut short the harvest period. They normally let rice grow for 100 to 120 days before harvesting. But they have reduced the period to only 65 to 70 days in order to produce three crops a year and thus gain more profits from the government. As a result, Thai rice exports are now perceived as being of low quality. The Thai rice export share on the world market this year dropped to only 22 per cent, with the Vietnamese catching up with 20 per cent.

Chookiat said that, over the past 6 to 7 years, exporters have disagreed with the pledging programme, which is obviously a short-term oriented populism. Many politicians support the programme because they can benefit from it through their connections with rice millers and traders.

The Nation has written many times about the failure of the rice subsidy programme. These straightforward comments from the exporters' representative should caution politicians who plan to launch similar programmes in the future.

It's time for the government to consider more sustainable means of increasing production. The negative effects of previous pledging programmes show that short-sighted populism should no longer be tolerated.

Source: The Nation