Kasikorn Research Centre has launched the country’s first rice index to reflect prevailing market conditions.

The KR Price Index: Rice is a weighted calculation based on rice varieties, incorporating prices through the entire supply chain including growers, mills and exports, and comparative prices among rivals, including Vietnam and the United States.

KResearch manager Paka-on Tipayatanadaja said yesterday that 2005 was the index’s base year.

Clearer world and domestic rice situations through these indices will allow the government to formulate its rice stock policy better, and millers and farmers to have clearer pictures of business and planting conditions, said Wiwan Tharahirunchote, KResearch’s executive chairman.

The indices for the selling price of growers and exports were at 193.55 and 143.79 in October, up 28 per cent and 12.5 per cent, respectively, from the same period last year. The rises came from limited world rice supplies and rising demand for rice after crop damages, due to volatile weather conditions, in the world’s two major rice producers, Pakistan and China, Paka-on said.

The index for the wholesale price at mills also rose 12.4 per cent to 171.22 in October, because of higher purchases by exporters.

In October, Vietnam’s rice was priced higher than Thailand’s after it increased minimum export prices by three times this year, Paka-on said.

The world and domestic rice prices could rise further during the rest of this year thanks to rising global demand and falling world production, due to fluctuating weather conditions, she said.

Prices of the country’s fragrant and glutinous rice could enjoy their upward trend throughout next year, while the white-rice price could continue to rise only in the first quarter, she said.

“We have to wait and see whether off-season rice production will adversely impact the domestic price of white rice, and if so, by how much.”

Source: The Nation