Organization of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC) International Head Office

 

 

The denomination Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC) describes a project that to organize 21 rice exporting countries to create a homonymous organisation. The group is mainly made up of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar but there are other rice exporting countries to be invited. The project came to the attention of international media after remarks made publicly by Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on the 30th April 2008.Unlike unfounded rumors and baseless worries that the Organization was created in order to increase rice price like OPEC, the objectives of OREC are in fact very humane, noble and reasonable

Some indications on the organisations' programmatic future may also be found in the statements of one of its first promoters, Mr. Ngô Van Tân (poet Tan Van). In early 2005 he wrote an article in which ae promoted the Ideology of Rice Power in Vietnamese language Manh Vì Gao (Rice Power). He paid  special attention to the hardship of peasants in rice producing and exporting countries facing price pressures from international buyers In another article appearing in the Vietnamese newspaper Saigon Tiep  Thi on May 30, 2007 he suggested Vietnam and other rice exporting countries to establish an organization called OREC in order to make rice price "reasonable" and supply stable, thus creating a win-win situation for  both buyers and producers. The alternative would discourage farmers from production, thus causing future shortage. The same article appeared again in various Vietnamese newspapers and websites on March 30,  2008.  Ngô Van Tân also promoted the idea of using a portion of profits  from rice trade to fight food shortages in poor areas, a form of food  redistribution that make the world more fair and just.

Unlike what people suspected of an OPEC cartel that tries to squeeze from people's pocket for their food, the OREC that Mr. Ngo Van Tan (poet Tan Van) initiated would invite all the 21 rice exporting countries worldwide to organize themselves into an alliance to help increase rice production efficiency and prevent human starvation that might happen in the future with the unforeseen climate changes and disasters. Those countries are:

'I have talked with Myanmar and invited them to join the rice exporting countries cartel, which will include Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, to form the group,' Samak told reporters.

Myanmar's Prime Minister General Thein Sein, in Thailand for an  official visit, has agreed to join the group, even through the military-ruled  nation is not currently a large rice exporter, he said. 'Thailand will help them in terms of technical support to improve their production for export,' Samak said.

Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have also agreed to join, and Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said OREC should begin meeting soon. Thailand  is the world's largest rice exporter, shipping an estimated 9.5 million  tonnes of rice overseas last year.

 

Milled Rice Exports by Country in 1000 MT Map Switch to: Growth Rate Rank Country Exports (1000 MT) 1 India 9,750.00 2 Vietnam 7,700.00 3 Thailand 6,500.00 4 Pakistan 4,000.00 5 United States 3,282.00 6 Cambodia 950.00 7 Egypt 850.00 8 Uruguay 850.00 9 Brazil 600.00 10 Myanmar 600.00 11 Argentina 525.00 12 Australia 500.00 13 China 500.00 14 Guyana 275.00 15 EU-27 235.00 16 Japan 200.00 17 Paraguay 200.00 18 Russian Federation 170.00 19 Turkey 80.00 20 Guinea 80.00 21 Peru 60.00 22 Venezuela 50.00 23 Kazakhstan 50.00 24 Uganda 35.00 25 South Africa 30.00 26 Côte D'ivoire 30.00 27 Ecuador 20.00 28 Tanzania, United Republic Of 20.00 29 Senegal 20.00 30 Saudi Arabia 20.00 31 Suriname 20.00 32 Sri Lanka 10.00 33 Korea, Republic Of 3.00 34 Mexico 2.00 35 Taiwan, Province Of China 2.00

 

The analysis below identifies top rice importing regions from around the world.

Rice Importers by Continent

1. Asia … 11.9 million tons (41% of global rice imports)
2. Africa … 7.6 million tons (26.1%)
3. Europe … 3.5 million tons (12.2%)
4. North and Central America … 2.3 million tons (8.1%)
5. South America … 1.1 million tons (3.9%).

Even though Asia farms more than 91% of the global rice harvest, Far Eastern nations import more rice than any other continent.

Top Rice Importers by Country

Rank	Country	Imports (1000 MT)
1	China	2,400.00
2	Nigeria	2,300.00
3	Iran, Islamic Republic Of	1,950.00
4	Philippines	1,500.00
5	Indonesia	1,450.00
6	EU-27	1,400.00
7	Iraq	1,350.00
8	Saudi Arabia	1,225.00
9	Malaysia	1,050.00
10	South Africa	1,000.00
11	Côte D'ivoire	950.00
12	Senegal	820.00
13	Brazil	750.00
14	Mexico	725.00
15	Japan	700.00
16	United States	651.00
17	Korea, Republic Of	600.00
18	Cuba	525.00
19	United Arab Emirates	440.00
20	Hong Kong	425.00
21	Cameroon	400.00
22	Ghana	400.00
23	Viet Nam	400.00
24	Mozambique	400.00
25	Thailand	400.00
26	Singapore	350.00
27	Yemen	350.00
28	Canada	350.00
29	Guinea	340.00
30	Kenya	340.00
31	Haiti	337.00
32	Angola	325.00
33	Venezuela	300.00
34	Turkey	300.00
35	Niger	280.00
36	Syrian Arab Republic	260.00
37	Afghanistan	260.00
38	Bangladesh	250.00
39	Burkina Faso	250.00
40	Madagascar	250.00
41	Libya	240.00
42	Liberia	230.00
43	Nepal	220.00
44	Kuwait	215.00
45	Benin	200.00
46	Russian Federation	200.00
47	Colombia	180.00
48	Peru	175.00
49	Somalia	175.00
50	Papua New Guinea	170.00
51	Jordan	165.00
52	Egypt	150.00
53	Chile	130.00
54	Guinea-Bissau	130.00
55	Taiwan, Province Of China	130.00
56	Tanzania, United Republic Of	130.00
57	Congo, The Democratic Republic Of The	125.00
58	Gambia	115.00
59	Switzerland	115.00
60	Algeria	110.00
61	Honduras	105.00
62	Korea, Democratic People's Republic Of	100.00
63	Mauritania	100.00
64	Mali	100.00
65	Sierra Leone	100.00
66	Togo	100.00
67	Oman	100.00
68	Jamaica	95.00
69	Australia	90.00
70	Israel	85.00
71	Nicaragua	85.00
72	Ukraine	80.00
73	El Salvador	80.00
74	Costa Rica	70.00
75	Mauritius	70.00
76	Guatemala	65.00
77	Uganda	60.00
78	Panama	55.00
79	Pakistan	50.00
80	Lebanon	50.00
81	Brunei Darussalam	45.00
82	New Zealand	45.00
83	Trinidad and Tobago	45.00
84	Djibouti	40.00
85	Bolivia	35.00
86	Turkmenistan	35.00
87	Sudan	35.00
88	Réunion	35.00
89	Lao People's Democratic Republic	30.00
90	Morocco	20.00
91	Dominican Republic	20.00
92	Kyrgyzstan	20.00
93	Sri Lanka	20.00
94	Ecuador	20.00
95	Rwanda	20.00
96	Tajikistan	20.00
97	Uzbekistan	15.00
98	Azerbaijan	15.00
99	Croatia	15.00
100	Kazakhstan	15.00
101	Chad	10.00
102	Bosnia and Herzegovina	7.00
103	Belarus	7.00
104	Argentina	5.00
105	Cambodia	5.00
106	Zambia	5.00
107	Malawi	5.00
108	Paraguay	2.00
109	Armenia	1.00

Fastest-growing Rice Imports by Country

Rice deliveries to the following 10 countries rose the fastest in 2004 from the prior year.

1. Sri Lanka … 240,700 tons (up 597.3% in 2004)
2. China … 928,210 tons (up 129.4%)
3. Benin … 476,490 tons (up 124.8%)
4. Saudi Arabia … 1.2 million tons (up 78%)
5. Oman … 149,830 tons (up 64.5%)
6. Kuwait … 150,620 tons (up 54.2%)
7. South Korea … 209,320 tons (up 46%)
8. Malaysia … 523,660 tons (up 42.1%)
9. United Arab Emirates … 717,710 tons (up 28.6%)
10. Canada … 334,320 tons (up 26.3%).

Fastest-declining Rice Imports by Country

The 10 nations below decreased their milled rice imports the most in 2004.

1. Indonesia … 390,830 tons (down 76% in 2004)
2. Bangladesh … 991,810 tons (down 20.7%)
3. Brazil … 852,080 tons (down 20.1%)
4. Nigeria … 1.4 million tons (down 12.6%)
5. North Korea … 702,000 tons (down 12.5%)
6. Mexico … 459,210 tons (down 8.6%)
7. Senegal … 822,550 tons (down 7.6%)
8. Japan … 662,020 tons (down 6.2%)
9. South Africa …744,840 tons (down 5.8%)
10. Russia (Europe) … 618,460 tons (down 4.1%).

Rice price fell during the early years 2000 and before that, while fertilizers, land and manpower keeps increasing result loss to farmers
Investing in the future

 

Thanks to profit farmers can modernize their cultivation with machinery, newly developed seeds, fertilizer and feel happy to cencentrate in producing rice to feed the world instead of worrying for their future. BANGKOK (Thomson Financial) April 30, 2008- Thailand has agreed in principle to form  a rice rice-fixing cartel with Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia as  costs of the staple grain surge, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said on Wednesday. The grouping of nationswould be called the

Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC).

 

Phnom Penh (Agencies) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday that the Opec-style rice cartel proposed by Thailand would ensure global food security, not increase hunger and poverty as critics say. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said last week there was an agreement in principle to form what he calls Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries by Burma, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. The Mekong-region nations hope they can run a group similar to the oil cartel Opec. Hun Sen said during a university graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh that the cartel would never try to manipulate markets like Opec. It would only seek to ensure global food security. "We will not only ensure food security in each of our own countries, but will help solve the entire problem of (food) shortages

across the region and the world," Hun Sen said. "When there are shortages, we will not stockpile the rice or increase prices," the premier said. "We really want to help ensure food security."

The Asian Development Bank said it hated the idea. Senior Philippines officials have blasted the proposal as "anti-poor", designed to increase hunger and poverty. Hun Sen urged them to stop. "The formation of the organisation is not meant to strangle the throats of countries that do not have rice," he said. The five proposed members of the cartel will discuss the organisation at regional talks in October, Hun Sen said, adding that the Mekong river nations would export up to 15 million tonnes of rice a year - 10 million by Thailand. Hun Sen last week appealed to farmers to grow more rice in order to profit from the increased global food crisis



RICE CARTEL AIMS FOR COMMON PRICE: CAMBODIAN MINISTER

 

 

We all need to do our part to reduce poverty, prevent further environmental erosion, and ensure a prosperous future for the billions of people in Asia’s rice societies. Contributing to the Asia Rice Foundation is to invest in a healthy work force and a green environment. 

What you do today will make a difference in Asia’s tomorrow. Show you care—get involved.

This organization is unique and has common aim to increase rice production and exportation. Thanks to it, rice supply and demand will harmonize, price will be stabilized and beneficial to both consumers and producers.  As you know that peansants in exporting countries have suffered with unreasonably low price in the past, many peasants in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia lived in poverty for their hard work, had to sell their daughters in order to survive because rice farming was a money loosing usiness that made many of them in debt lifetime! In the meantime, low rice price was a factor in wasting this essential product in many cities especially in North America if you go to a Chinese restaurant, a lot of cooked rice (often overserved) left over by customers was thrown in garbage. In the meantime people in Asia and Africa starved because of rice shortage.

Thanks to reasonable price, rice peasants can benefit and therefore continue to produce actively instead of quitting the farm, thus guarantee undisrupted supplies. As a humanitarian person by nature, I also suggested that those farmers and their exporting countries reserve a portion of profit to pool together to help subsidize poor people worldwide so they can afford this essential product. 

Prime Minister Hun Sen: Orec can solve world hunger

 

 

 

Rice in 54 other countries

 

Rice for Life

For more than half of humanity, rice is life. It is the grain that has shaped the cultures, diets, and economies of billions of people in Asia. For them, life without rice is simply unthinkable.
Rice reality

Between now and 2020, 1.2 billion new rice consumers will be added in Asia. Feeding these eople will require the greatest effort in the history of agriculture: rice production must be increased by one third from today’s 320 million tons to 420 million tons. Farmers will have to grow an extra 3.7 million tons every year—at the very time that rice land is decreasing and the remaining fields eem to be wearing out.

Today, there is barely enough rice for everyone. And in some places, because of political and economic turmoil, there is not enough—and people are going hungry.

What about tomorrow?

If we do not begin to respond to today’s cries for help, Asia’s future will be bleak.

Environmental woes

Growing more and more rice from less and less land, however, may simply not be sustainable. Chemical pesticides are already polluting the lakes, rivers, and groundwater. Genetic biodiversity is eroding, salinity is encroaching farther inland, and there is less water for irrigation. Air and water pollution are already problems in many places.

What kind of environment will our children inherit?


Rhythm of life

 

Grown in Asia for at least 10,000 years, rice has richly influenced the cultures and lives of billions of people. In the old societies of Asia, rice dictates the rhythm of life. It is the grain that links Heaven and Earth, gods and mortals. Throughout the region, rice dominates customs, beliefs, rituals, and celebrations.  

But as societies become affluent, they are slowly becoming less attached to rice. And the death of an elder often means the loss of age-old traditions and legends.

Who will preserve the priceless rice heritage?

Teetering on the edge

The Asia Rice Foundation.

http://www.spp.nus.edu.sg/ajpa/pdf/issue7/5%20Matthew%20Brummer%20Op-Ed.pdf