Reader question: Do Thai farmers get a fair price for their rice?

I would like to see a scale showing what the retail price goes to where. I know a supplier in Thailand of Faitrade products: what goes to the farmers more than usual... is a joke

Unfortunately, the farmers in Isaan do not receive a decent compensation for anything. the great profits cling to the fingers of wholesalers and intermediaries. Cooperatives are not known or distrusted. Livestock and slaughter are also often sold too cheaply and there is a lack of proper supervision. But it is beautiful and the people are warm and hospitable.
Regards,
Martin.

This advertisement is pure deception. the Thai farmer is dependent on buyers, who then offer it to a freight forwarder or the government. Ultimately, there are only a few very rich and powerful forwarders who determine the entire rice market in Thailand, including purchasing and selling prices. So there is not a single farmer in Thailand who can even make a profit, so definitely not getting a fair price.
The advertising code committee should intervene here with a hefty fine.

I know from experience that rice producers in Pichit, Phitsanulok, Sukothai, Uttaradit region have only set up cooperatives. However, most rice farmers continue to produce for their own account on a relatively small area, often even (partly) on leased land.

The areas per company seat also systematically decreased over the years, mainly under the influence of Thai inheritance legislation. When a manager dies, it often fragments within the family. Those who still want / have to continue "farming" must rent from relatives. This usually leads to situations and (even more) unprofitability.

Furthermore, overindebtedness in farming families means that control over the most important means of production – land – is increasingly being lost.

The fact that prices for rice have plummeted, partly due to poor government policy, is pushing up the debt ratio among farmers.

A few years ago my Thai brother-in-law got 10 baht for a kilo of rice, recently it was 5 baht. He was able to save his company from collapse by diversifying in time. Partly switched to vegetable growing and fish farming. This allows him to keep his head above water.

Just last week we received an “interesting proposal” from a member of the board of directors of a sugar factory in Sawan Khalok. He knows my wife from high school and thanks to Facebook they "found" each other after years. He proposed to give him a minimum of 1 million baht. He borrows the money from farming families. He knows many of them in the wider region through his job in the sugar factory. The need for capital is high among those farmers. He predicted a net return of 2% per month. Risk-free because the farmers' Chanoot is registered as a mortgage at the land office, directly in my wife's name. How much he still “grabs” is not clear to me.

One man's bread is another man's death. It goes on inexorably. Buddhism does not soften. It's just a patch to keep up appearances.

After the “political” rice debacle, I had expected (hoped) that there would be government incentives to develop bio-energy. There was raw material. A great opportunity was up for grabs. But giant stocks experience spoilage for the rats and mice in the giant warehouses. The large gray buildings in the middle of the rice fields stand today as silent witnesses of the political conceit and socio-economic misery in rural areas.

The advertising code committee should ask Plus markets to demonstrate that Thai farmers are indeed getting a fair price for their rice.
If Plus markets cannot prove this, they should remove the remark from their advertising and otherwise be fined for every time they use that remark in their advertisements about Thai rice farmers.