Protests erupted yesterday from rice-importing nations as Samak Sundaravej, Thailand's Prime Minister, proposed a cartel of South-East Asian rice exporters that would seek to gain more control over the price of grain.

In the wake of mounting concern about a tripling in the price of rice, Mr Samak said that he would seek to bring together Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Laos and Cambodia in a price-setting organisation similar to Opec.

The proposal, which emerged as South-East Asian trade ministers gathered in Bali for talks over regional issues, including rice shortages, drew an immediate protest from the Philippines, which has been forced to take emergency measures to ensure food supplies.

Edgardo Angara, chairman of the senate committee on agriculture in the Philippines, said: “Almost three billion people are rice eaters. It's not a good idea. It's a bad idea. It will create an oligopoly and it's against humanity.”

Panic over the escalating price of rice has prompted governments to impose export curbs, notably in Vietnam and in India, which recently imposed an export tariff on its high-quality Basmati that had previously been exempted from restrictions.

America has offered an extra $770 million (£390 million) of food aid in an effort to bridge the widening gap between the soaring cost of grain and affordability for the world's poor.

The World Food Programme, which has mounted a campaign to fill a $775 million budget shortfall caused by soaring grain prices, said it was a major step in addressing the problem.

The WFP, which feeds 73 million people in 80 countries, has suffered a 55 per cent rise in its costs in less than a year. It said it had already received pledges of additional aid from Canada, Australia and Britain, and indicated it had achieved 70 per cent of its target funding.

The proposed rice producers' cartel drew indications of support from Thailand's neighbours, Laos and Cambodia. Thailand is the world's biggest rice exporter but a government spokesman said that the country was failing to benefit from its strong position.

“We have had little influence on the price. With oil rising so much, we import expensive oil but sell rice very cheaply and that's unfair to us and hurts our trade balance,” he said.

Laos said it would consider seriously the idea and Cambodia suggested that an association would prevent price wars and enable the exchange of information about food security.

Sceptics suggested that an Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries would struggle to achieve the power that Opec has because it would be unable to control supply.

Robert Zeigler, of the International Rice Research Institute, noted that oil was produced by a small number of very large companies: “Rice is grown by millions of farmers in one, two, three hectares of land.”

Figures

— Global rice consumption has risen by 40 per cent in the past 30 years from 62kg (136lbs) per person to 86kg (190lbs)

— Burma has the highest per capita rice consumption in the world at 200kg

— Rice prices on the Chicago Board of Trade have risen more than 80 per cent this year

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