Commodity Chain Analysis

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Introduction

Most individuals have eaten rice sometime in their life, but for Asian cultures, it is consumed on a daily basis. In the comfort of your own home or in the convenience of a restaurant, no one really stops to think how those grains of rice ended up on their plate. This side option for many Americans is a necessary food source for several countries. Rice is an extremely vital grain that is consumed by a large portion of the world’s population. Due to the world’s constantly increasing number of inhabitants, rice farmers are finding it difficult to keep up with the high demand. Since rice consumption is an essential part of many Asian countries’ diets; Farmers in regions such as Thailand, China, and Vietnam are struggling to make ends meet. Rice production is a tremendously labor intensive commodity to produce and many of the farmers receive little pay for their work.

Rice is a particularly unique grain that involves a substantial amount of water in order to thrive. In Thailand, there is a high dependency on rainwater to irrigate the rice crops. However being so heavily confined to the environment, the crops are more prone to natural disasters. Much of the Thai person’s life revolves around rice. Whether they are the farmers producing it or the wealthy families consuming it, rice is an everyday necessity. In Thai, the verb “to eat” translates to “to eat rice,” which shows how important this commodity is to the country.

This paper will focus on Thailand’s rice production. It is the world’s number one rice exporter and one of the world’s top leading producers of rice (“World’s Top,” 2011). There are many factors involved in rice production, such as the working conditions of farmers, the impact of Mother Nature, effe...

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