OPEC-style cartel for the rice industry?

Two stories on the global rice industry attracted my attention last week. The perception that the surge in rice prices is good news across the board for rice producers is questioned by this article in the Financial Times which explains that the dramatic increase in prices is now benefitting smaller producers who have limited storage facilities, face rising costs and have little surplus production available to take advantage of the global price spike. There has been a noticeable increase in rice planting in countries such as Thailand, but by the time the fresh output comes to market, the price may well have fallen a long way from recent highs.

The rest of the article is here

The BBC reports today that Thailand wants to form an Opec-style rice cartel to give it more control over international rice prices. The article can be found here
Revision questions for students:

(a) Explain what is meant by a cartel and what its aims might be
(b) Briefly explain how a cartel might seek to stabilise the price of rice on world markets
(c) Outline the difficulties that a newly formed cartel might have in meeting its objectives

“Benign”, eh?

Today the Office of Fair Trading has filed a press release accusing 112 construction companies of price-fixing. Estimated to be hundreds of millions of pounds, this will dwarf the previous record fine of £121.5m on BA last year and the £116m penalty on supermarket milk price-fixing. Some of the biggest names such as Balfour Beatty and Carillion have been accused, and shares in the construction sector generally dipped in London today.