Rice Price Controls Policy of Vietnam and Its Competition with Thailand: a Practical Application of Spatial Equilibrium Models
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RICE PRICE CONTROLS POLICY OF VIETNAM AND ITS COMPETITION WITH THAILAND: A PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF SPATIAL EQUILIBRIUM MODELS Dissertation for the Completion of the Academic Degree “Doctor Rerum Agriculturarum” (Dr. rer. agr.) Submitted to the Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin by Pham Thi Huong Diu, M.Sc. President of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Olbertz Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Frank Ellmer Advisors: 1. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Harald von Witzke 2. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bokelmann 3. Prof. Dr. Siegfried Bauer Date of Oral Exam: 19.03.2014 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Harald von Witzke, for his strong support for my doctoral study and thesis. I would also like to thank him for being an open person to ideas, and for encouraging and helping me to shape my concerns and ideas. For all I have learned from him and for providing an office place where I have studied over 4 years. His attitude to research inspired me to continue to a doctoral program and more motivation in study. I would like to thank .Prof. Dr Tihman Brück for his guidance, encouragement and insightful comments. Although he has moved to work in another country, his supports are always valuable to me until the end. I also would like to thank Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Wolfgang Bokelmann and Prof. Prof. Dr. Siegfried Bauer for reviewing my thesis with enthusiasms. My sincere gratitude also goes to Doz. Dr. sc. Drs. h. c. mult Michael Böhme who has happily agreed to be a chairman of my committee. I will never forget my feeling on such a special date I have made calls to all of them to form my committee. In particular, I am grateful to DAAD, the Deutscher Akademicsche Austauch Dienst and Humboldt University of Berlin for their financial support granted during the time I take the program in Berlin. My great appreciation is for other people from Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnamese Food Association, Vinafood 1 and 2, the local authorities and rice farmers from 7 provinces. They have accepted my invitation to iii talk, discuss, guide and help me answer the concerns and questions surrounding the rice export issue of Vietnam. From whom, I can clarify the research problems. I would like to thank my friends and colleagues for the stimulating discussions and their encouragement and for the fun we have had in the last 4 years. I thank Anne Wolf for being a great reliable friend to whom I could always talk about my problems and excitements. Thanks her for questioning me about my ideas, helping me think rationally and even for hearing my problems. An addition, a thank you to Dr. Matthias Dennhardt, who supported me always and did not get angry when my plans were changed. I also would like to thank Ms Brigitte Stammann, who supports me a lots preparing necessary papers and the final procedures. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their supporting me spiritually throughout both my carrier and normal life. An especial thank is to my husband for always believing in me and my decision and for his continuous love. My daughter was only 7 years old when I started my research. Thanks to her for her strength when she has to live and go to school away from me. This gives me more motivation to complete the course and urge me back to take care her. Without whom and their constant support I would have not finished my dissertation. Thank you for all iv DISCLAIMER I, Pham Thi Huong Diu, hereby certify that this dissertation has been written by the author under the doctoral program at Humboldt University of Berlin. This is an expression of personal views on Vietnamese rice Price Controls policy and do not necessarily reflect the political views. The result from Spatial Equilibrium Models in the thesis was analysed in a poster at Tropentag 2012 by the author, but the whole thesis is not currently being submitted for any other degrees. That is the best of my knowledge. Any help received in preparing this work and all the reference material used have been acknowledged. Pham Thi Huong Diu October 2014 v ABSTRACT Vietnam and Thailand are the top two rice exporters who contribute more than 50 per cent of market shares in the international market. Therefore, any changes in their rice policies have a strong influence on the world market. Currently, one of the strongest and most often impacts on the Vietnamese rice industry is the Price Controls Policy that regulates the competition in rice market. It restricts the volume of r rice export in order to ensure national food security. This policy keeps Vietnamese rice production under its full potential compared with the rice industry in Thailand. Many experts suggest that Vietnam pays more attention on national food security than necessary. This causes market distortion and weakens Vietnam’s competitiveness with Thailand. In order to examine the effects of the Price Controls Policy with a quantitative method, we build and run a spatial equilibrium model with 3 different scenarios: (1) Price Controls Policy updated every week; (2) Price Controls Policy updated every month; (3) Price Controls Policy updated quarterly. Base on the available data of production, consumption, domestic price, transportation cost and elasticities of demand and supply function of Vietnamese and Thai rice industry, the model shows the following result. With less changese in the Pric Control policy, the competitiveness in terms of export quantity of the Vietnamese rice on international markets rises without having negative effects on the national food security goal. Non‐rice farmers will be in disadvantage position due to higher domestic prices for rice, but the majority of the population who are rice farmers, accounting for more than 70 per cent of the population, will benefit from the higher volume and turnover of rice export, and so the net social revenue will increase also. Therefore, we highly recommend that the Price Controls Policy should not be revised on regular to serve the purpose of achieving better competitiveness of Vietnamese rice Keywords: Price Controls; Effect of Policy; Spatial Equilibrium Models; Vietnamese rice industry; Competitiveness. vi Zusammenfassung Vietnam und Thailand sind zwei der führenden Exporteure für Reis. Zurzeit hat die staatliche Preispolitik den stärksten und meisten Einfluss auf die vietnamesische Branche für Reis. Es beschränkt die Exportmenge, um die Menge für den nationalen Nahrungsmittelbedarf sicherzustellen. Diese Regulierung hält die vietnamesische Produktion unter ihrem vollständigen potenzial, im Vergleich zu der Reisproduktion in Thailand, zurück. Viele Experten unterstellen, dass Vietnam mehr Aufmerksamkeit der nationalen Strategie zur Ernährungssicherung schenkt als es notwendig wäre. Das verursacht Marktverzerrung und schwächt den landeseigenen Reisexport im Vergleich zu Thailand. Um die Auswirkungen der staatlichen Preispolitik mit einer quantitativen Methode zu untersuchen, wird über ein Gleichgewichtsmodell drei verschiedenen Szenarien eruiert: (1)Die Regulierungsrichtlinie für Reispreise wird wöchentlich aktualisiert; (2)Die Regulierungsrichtlinie für Reispreise wird monatlich angepasst; (3)Die Regulierungsrichtlinie für Reispreise wird quartalsweise überabeitet. Basierend aus den Produktionsdaten, dem Konsum, inländischen Preis, Transportkosten, der Elastizität der Nachfrage und der Angebotsfunktion der vietnamesischen und thailändischen Reisbranche zeigt dieses Modell Resultat: Mit kleinen Anpassungen in der Preispolitik wächst der Wettbewerb in Bezug auf der vietnamesischen Exportmenge auf dem internationalen Markt ohne negative Auswirkungen auf die Ziele der nationalen Ernährungssicherung. Nicht‐Reisbauern werden in eine nachteilige Position gestellt aufgrund von höheren Preisen auf dem inländischen Markt. Jedoch Bevölkerung, welche Reisbauern sind, werden von den höheren Handelsmengen, den steigenden Umsätzen vii und ebenfalls von dem steigenden Nettoeinkommen der Reisexporteure profitieren. Deshalb empfehlen wir nicht die staatliche Preispolitik regelmäßig zu überarbeiten, um das Ziel einer besseren Wetbewerbsfähigkeit von Vietnam zu erreichen Schlüsselwörter: Preispolitik, Auswirkungen von Regulierungen, Gleichgewichtsmodell, vietnamesische Reisbranche, Wettbewerbsfähigkeit viii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT............................................................................................................ii DISCLAIMER...........................................................................................................................iv ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................................... xi TABLE OF FIGURES AND DIAGRAMS .................................................................................... xii ABBREVIATION .................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................................... 1 1.1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................1 1.2. BACKGROUND..................................................................................................................3