Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, said it wants to form an OPEC-style cartel with Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam to give them more control over international rice prices.

"Though we are the food center of the world, we have had little influence on the price," Thai government spokesman Vichienchot Sukchokrat said. "With the oil price rising so much, we import expensive oil but sell rice very cheaply, and that's unfair to us and hurts our trade balance."

Laos Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalansy said Friday his country would "seriously consider" the idea, saying a cartel would give the five countries "bargaining power."

The hike in rice prices has come amid global food inflation, poor weather in some rice-producing nations and demand that has outstripped supply. Some Asian countries, including India and Vietnam, have contributed to the problem by curbing rice exports to guarantee their own supplies.

Cambodia, which in the past has championed the rice cartel idea, also welcomed the latest proposal and said it was a "necessity" given the current global food crisis.

"By forming an association, we can help prevent a price war and exchange information about food security," Cambodia's chief government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said.

But the rice institute's Zeigler said it would be difficult to apply the OPEC model to rice.

"Rice is grown by millions of farmers in one, two, three hectares (acres) of land. Oil is produced by a few multinational companies in a few countries," Zeigler said. "So I think the differences are so large as to make any comparison between the two wild fantasies."

Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said any rice cartel would have little impact because it would exclude big producers like India and Pakistan.

Source.