Rice reserves in Southeast Asia

Countries are beginning to react to the new soaring food prices affecting every region across the planet.

This is so for the ten member states of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), who with their partners China, Japan and South Korea have decided to constitute rice stocks in each of the region’s countries.

During a two-day meeting in Vientiane in Laos, ASEAN trade ministers committed to placing 787,000 tonnes of rice in stock reserves to combat the price volatility affecting commodities.

If they have taken this decision, it is not to repeat what they see as "errors" committed in 2008 during the last food crisis. At that time, while food prices were blazing, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo launched a genuine cry for help to the Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, in order to obtain a guaranteed supply of rice. But Vietnam had decided to limit its exports, so the Philippines quickly intervened on the markets to buy enough rice to meet the shortage. These decisions were unilateral and uncoordinated and destabilized agricultural markets even more.

This commitment from Southeast Asian countries is a strong political signal. As the G20 summit approaches and the issue of regulation is at the heart of international debates, food stocks are now considered by many as an indispensable tool if agricultural prices are to be permanently stabilized. Therefore it is to be hoped that other regions of the world build on this Asian initiative to implement, at a regional level, the global regulation of international agricultural markets.