The Organisation of

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

Exporting Countries (OREC) describes a project of a small group of South-East Asian countries to create a homonymous organisation. The group is made up, in alphabetical order, of

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist s ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

. The project came to the attention of international media after remarks made publicly by Thailand's Prime Minister

Samak Sundaravej Samak Sundaravej ( th, สมัคร สุนทรเวช, , ; 13 June 1935 – 24 November 2009) was a Thai politician who briefly served as the Prime Minister of Thailand and Minister of Defense in 2008, as well as the leader of the Peo ...

on the 30th April 2008. It is yet unclear whether the organisation's intention would be to create a rice

price fixing Price fixing is an anticompetitive agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given ...

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...

similar to the one of the

OPEC The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC, ) is a cartel of countries. Founded on 14 September 1960 in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela), it has, since 1965, been headqua ...

for petroleum. However, it can be assumed that some price coordination will be the objective given the coincidence of the announcement with rising world-market prices for rice and the fact that all prospective members are traditional rice producers with high current export levels or export potentials for rice. Statements by the involved countries in early May indicated that a price-fixing cartel would only serve to "worsen

food security Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World ...

" and the organization's purpose is "to contribute to ensuring food stability, not just in an individual country but also to address food shortages in the region and the world".

Programmatic discussion / Political agenda

The discussion on a political agenda appears to be of a programmatic nature at this early stage with only few political statements being made to the public. Thailand's prime minister Mr. Samak was quoted in the Thai newspaper

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

as saying that, “We RECdon’t aspire to be like OPEC, but we hope to be just a group of five to help each other in trading rice on the world market”. A few days later Cambodia's prime minister, in an attempt to allay fears in the region about the creation of rice exporting cartel, specified some of what he thinks may be the core principles of action of OREC, " ..to contribute to ensuring food stability not just in individual countries but also to address food shortages in the region and the world.". He further added, "We shall not hoard (rice) and raise prices when there are shortages.", and that " ..ur friends in ASEAN should not be worried about creation of this association."

International Reactions

Plans for the creation of OREC were denounced in the Philippines, the world's biggest rice importer. The Philippines is dependent on rice imports and is facing problems in sourcing rice on world markets. The president of the

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field of ...

Haruhiko Kuroda is a Japanese banker and a former Ministry of Finance government official. He serves as the 31st and current Governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ). He was formerly the President of the Asian Development Bank from 1 February 2005 to 18 March 2013. ...

opposed the organization saying that it would be bad for both importers and exporters. In the Asian Journal of Public Affairs, Mathew Brummer discusses the interplay between politics and food security as it to relates to the potential formation of OREC as a price fixing regime
The Cartel of Good Intentions? OREC and Food Security in Asia

History

A first unsuccessful attempt to coordinate prices for rice on world markets was made in 2002 at the occasion of a meeting of senior government officials from major rice exporting countries from

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, milita ...

and India. According to Cambodia's prime minister

Hun Sen Hun Sen (; km, ហ៊ុន សែន, ; born 5 August 1952) is a Cambodian politician and former military commander who has served as the prime minister of Cambodia since 1985. He is the longest-serving head of government of Cambodia, and ...

the five proposed members of OREC cartel will discuss the organisation at regional talks in October 2008.

Economics

Critics predict that a cartel on rice may be to the economic detriment of those who initiate it since rice producing countries may be able to expand their land under cultivation in the medium to long term. Members of the cartel may thus lose today's rice export markets with governments pushing towards stronger national production in order to achieve food self-reliance. Controlling the supply-side on a world scale may be a difficult goal to achieve for OREC. Herein can be seen a major difference to the oil-cartel OPEC.

Membership

References

External links

ORECWorld Food Situation Portal
an
Crop Prospects and Food Situation – No. 2, April 2008
— '' FAO''
Food Prices Portal
- ''

International Food Policy Research Institute The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international agricultural research center founded in the early 1970s to improve the understanding of national agricultural and food policies to promote the adoption of innovations ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Orec Rice organizations Foreign relations of Cambodia Foreign relations of Myanmar Foreign relations of Laos Foreign relations of Thailand Foreign relations of Vietnam Cambodia–Vietnam relations