Farmers and traders stand to lose business as they face a serious challenge from many foreign firms, mainly Singaporean, which have set up rice-trading operations and plantations here under Asean seamless trade.
“Although rice farming and trading are limited to Thais under the Foreign Business Act, many foreigners can easily rent or own land for raising rice and conducting a rice-trading business in the Kingdom,” a rice trader said yesterday.
At a Commerce Ministry seminar on creating a strategy linking local and global businesses, Thai rice exporters urged the government to protect Thai rice-cultivating areas and the trading business from alien residents by urgently checking the ownership of rice plantations and the certificates for running a trading business.