The exporters' reluctance to play ball leaves the door open for a direct government-to-government deal between Thailand and Iran.

The possible export sale has taken the news spotlight because it is believed Iran is attempting to build up food stockpiles as it faces possible United Nations sanctions over its nuclear programme.

The association's president, Chookiat Ophaswongse, said Iran wants to buy only long-grain rice, such as 100-per-cent white rice. A reasonable export price should be about US$320 (Bt12,094) per tonne for Thai white rice, but Iran is offering only US$305 per tonne for 300,000 tonnes. The middle price for white rice on the world market is between $310 and $312 per tonne.

Chookiat said Iran's offer is too low to cover both the high export risks involved and a complicated export inspection process unique to Iran, called "Iranian terms".

This system requires that the quality of every sack of rice is confirmed by an Iranian inspector.

The costs of exporting to Iran are $10 per tonne higher than to other countries because of this condition, according to Chookiat.

"Although exporters want to release their rice stocks, they don't want to shoulder losses from the lower price and the high risk," he said, adding that some Iranian importers had bad payment records.

"If Thai exporters cannot conclude a deal with Iranian importers, the contract will be handled under government-to-government arrangements between the Foreign Trade Department and related Iranian government agencies," he said.

Chookiat claimed that if Thailand misses the Iranian deal, this year's total rice exports may fall short of the official 7.5-million-tonne forecast by between 300,000 tonnes and 500,000 tonnes.

However, according to a recent US Department of Agriculture report, Thailand's rice export volume should rise by 300,000 tonnes to 7.3 million tonnes this year.

The USDOA said increased demand for rice was coming from Iran, the Phillipines, Indonesia and Iraq.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Trade Department's director-general, Rachane Potjanasuntorn, said the Thai government might look for a barter deal with Iran, trading rice for oil, thereby skirting any cash transactions.

On a related subject, a Roi Et woman farmer has won first prize in the Commerce Ministry's jasmine rice competition.

Pad Kromrin, 54, who the Commerce Ministry deemed produced the country's best jasmine rice, said she was very happy that the award might make rice from Roi Et better known.

She said she hoped the price for jasmine rice will be stable at Bt10 per kg so that farmers will prosper and strive to improve their production.

Pad, who said she won the prize by using her own bio-fertiliser and using less insecticide in her fields, said her prize money would be ploughed back into her five hectares of land to improve her rice production.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation