What's new in business news: August 30, 2013
K-pop's declining popularity, rise of Vietnamese jasmine rice & govt rubber price accepted by north, rejected by south.
K-pop's declining popularity, rise of Vietnamese jasmine rice & govt rubber price accepted by north, rejected by south.
A worker continues to make sheet rubber at a rubber cooperative in Nakhon Si Thammarat, where several hundred rubber farmers are holding a week-long protest to demand that the government raise prices for their sector. (Photo by Patipat Janthong)
MARKETING
K-pop starts to fizzle out
The popularity of South Korean content is declining among young Thai consumers. Ratings for Korean TV series, K-pop concerts and internet searches for Korean artists have been steadily down for three years in Thailand.
The K-pop phenomenon began in Thailand in 2008 with Dae Jang-guem, the popular TV series about traditional Korean palace cooking, followed by Autumn in My Heart and Full House and others. Popular South Korean singers are Rain, F4, Dong Bang shin Ki, 2pm, Girls' Generation and Nichkhun.
The ratings and popularity of international TV drama series have been falling since 2009 with Korean shows leading the pack at 23%, Japanese shows at 18%, Western at 15% and Chinese at 7%. The decline in popularity may be may be due to a shift from regular TV to other media such as online TV, smartphones, tablets and home entertainment.
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EXPORTS
Thai jasmine rice challenged
Thai Hom Mali rice faces stiffer competition in international markets as several countries step up their efforts to expand their export markets for aromatic grains.
Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar are accelerating the development of their aromatic rice varieties and their export support. US supermarkets now place more Vietnamese aromatic rice on their shelves and US produced fragrant rice - dubbed Jazzmen - is now available in California. Thai Hom Mali sells for US$1,150 a tonne, but Vietnamese aromatic rice is only $550-600.
Hong Kong remains a key market for Thai Hom Mali, making up about 300,000 tonnes and it is also growing in popularity in Africa.
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AGRICULTURE
Rubber protesters split: North accepts, South rejects
Rubber farmers in the Central Plains, North and Northeast have accepted the government's rubber subsidy offer.
The government offer raises the raw sheet rubber price to 80 baht per kilogramme and subsidises rubber cultivation at 1,260 baht per rai up to a maximum of 10 rai per farmer. The cap on rubber plantation subsidies may be increased from 10 to 25 rai.
Ubon Ratchathani farmers were demanding 92 baht per kilogramme for sheet rubber, but the offer of 80 baht was accepted. Farmers in Nakhon Si Thammarat are demanding the government give them 100 baht per kilogramme for raw sheet rubber.
Farmers in the South continued to hold out, with protests continuing in Nakhon Si Thammarat Thursday. A road blockade remains in place, but the number of demonstrators dwindled as the protest entered its seventh day.
The government said it would not use force to disperse the demonstrators. The blockade there had forced school closures, prevented the transfer of seriously ill hospital patients and also prevented the delivery of the agricultural goods of other farmers to market.
The government would lend 5 billion baht to rubber farmers to produce value-added rubber products instead of selling only raw sheet rubber as well as 15 billion baht to large-scale rubber industrialists to upgrade factories.
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