Thais to revive rice cartel

Thais to revive rice cartel

BANGKOK (Reuters): Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra plans to resurrect a discarded agreement to form an "OPEC-like" rice cartel with Vietnam during an official visit to Hanoi on April 25, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

The spokesman said Thaksin would like to raise the issue with his Vietnamese counterparts during his one-day visit.

"Thailand, as the world's largest rice exporter, and Vietnam, as the world's second largest rice exporter, should form a rice group like OPEC," the spokesman said.

Thailand and Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding last September to set up a "rice pool" of 200,000 tons of low-grade rice to avoid price undercutting and to stabilize export prices, but the deal fell apart.

The Thai government of then Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai blamed Vietnam for unilaterally altering the pact to cover 15 percent broken rice, instead of the 25 percent variety as previously agreed.

Thaksin, whose landslide election victory was boosted by widespread support from farmers and rural voters, said rice farmers in major producing countries should unite to stabilize prices.