I would like to talk a little about this conspiracy theory that has been going along in my head for a while, in which I have some serious reason to believe that judging through the clues, there is some valid reason behind my somewhat outrageous ideas on the
Khao Hom Mali Conspiracy Theory.
For readers who aren't familiar, Thailand (the country where I'm from) is the world's #1 exporter of rice, and our most famous strain of rice is called Khao Hom Mali which is a special strain - known for its fragrance - which is unique in the world and one of our biggest argicultural exports. During the last few weeks, there has been word that some of our Khao Hom Mali strain was found growing in one of our neighboring country Cambodia, which our trade officials are deciding cautiously what to do with the rumor - neither confirming or denying it. With this latest piece of the jigsaw puzzle of the conspiracy theory in place, let me recollect a few things in chronological order and explain about my theory.
First of all, let me explain that during New Year, there was word that the Agricultural Ministry is considering a FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with our neighboring country, and in one of the agreements they were planning is to allow the import of rice from neighboring countries such as Cambodia. This annoucement of the FTA in work was a complete surprise to many people in Thailand, as being the world's largest exporter of rice, where we produce much more than we consume locally, there is little reason for Thailand to import lower quality rice for any reason. There is import of some Japanese rice, due to specialized Japanese restaurant, but I don't suppose there are any Cambodian or Vietnamese restaurants that would choose to use their local rice over out rice strains here. With this word out, I have a buring suspicion that something was amiss with this, and I had a few conspiracy theory in my head.
Let me explain that a few years before, there was once a talk about the ban on logging in Thailand. Due to that reason, there was alot of talk about importing logs from neighboring countries so that illegal loggers cannot gain from the trade. What happened afterwards was a show of how greedy Thai business people were - in which some unscrupulous business men fell logs in Thailand, push them over the border, and then reimport them as logs fell in the neighboring country. It was a very big scandal, and a show of how low greedy businessmen could scoop down to.
When I read the news about the attempted on the FTA agreement in allowing the import of rice, I just have a reason to think that there is something amiss much like how the logging scandal was conducted. Here is what I thought:
Rice that are imported in Thailand must be the Khao Hom Mali strain, but disguised as lower grade rice from that country. Later the middle person would switch the rice and sell them. Now this won't make much sense - for all the trouble to secretly port the Khao Hom Mali rice to a neighboring country to then get it back. I was thinking a little deeper, and then hell just froze over.
What would happen if someone actually gave the strains of the Khao Hom Mali to a neighboring country to grow and then import it back disguised - at a cheaper price? Later they would then export the cheaper Khao Hom Mali rice abroad for more money since labour cost in the neighboring country is cheaper than in Thailand...
...
If the conspiracy theory is true, then that would be something really really bad for the Thai farmers here, who are having trouble making a living already :-/
I decided to proceed my little investigation, in which I've contacted one of my friend (name I will not disclose) whose home does import/export of a variety of products including rice and has done extensive business in the ASEAN area and China. One of the first question I shot at him, was asking do you think its possible that the Khao Hom Mali strain would be grown in a neighboring country. He just told me bluntly that he 100% sure he was eating Khao Hom Mali in Cambodia when he was visiting there to sell some of his company's products. He said you got to be blind if you didn't see all the Khao Hom Mali rice growing there. When I heard that statement, I just decided to tell him about the conspiracy theory I had in mind for a while. When he listened through it, he just laughed out and complimented for being a real observant person. He just told me, if anyone that would do that it could only be a big agricultural based company that could influence government decision could have the clout has made it happened - and it would only be a matter of time before what I posted there would be true. He later went on to rant about all the cut-throat business people and all of the "bad business" practices done - which I won't write here as it sounded alittle emotional.
I had second opinions with two other people who worked in this industry, and most of them were rather resigned when I talked about that, and most of them never denied or accepted the observation, preferring to end the conversation asap.
Since my conspiracy theory hit a dead end, and I'm not an investigative reporter to further my ideas, I just decided to end my query there - which was early February.
Now forward to today, I've just saw on the newspaper about rumors of Khao Hom Mali rice growing in Cambodia, and it just hit me again about what has happened in the last few months and what I thought about all of this conspiracy theory - just simply came to a nearly full moon.
Business will forsaken national interest for the sake of profit. Sigh...
