South-east Asian nations agreed at the weekend to co-operate more closely to stabilise regional rice prices and on measures to boost productivity in how the staple was grown, harvested and distributed, Indonesia’s trade minister said.

Mari Pangestu told the Financial Times after a meeting of economic ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) in Bali that the members would now operate in ways that should prevent rice prices from continuing their climb of the past four months.

She also stressed that neither Asean nor a sub-grouping of its members were seeking to create an Opec-style price-fixing cartel for rice, as Thailand suggested last week. ... Read full article