science

OREC

OREC is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand OREC rather than just read about it. In short: Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC) is a proposed organisation of South-East Asian countries which would regulate rice. The group was expected to be made up of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Key takeaways

OREC belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect OREC to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of OREC from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC) is a proposed organisation of South-East Asian countries which would regulate rice. The group was expected to be made up of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The project came to international attention after remarks made publicly by Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on the 30th April 2008.

History A first unsuccessful attempt to coordinate prices for rice on world markets was made in 2002 at the occasion of a meeting of senior government officials from major rice exporting countries from ASEAN and India. According to Cambodia's prime minister Hun Sen the five proposed members of OREC cartel will discuss the organisation at regional talks in October 2008. In June 2008, due to objections from the Philippines and Asian Development Bank, Thailand scrapped the OREC proposal.

Organisation It is yet unclear whether the organisation's intention would be to create a rice price fixing cartel similar to that of the OPEC for petroleum. However, it can be assumed that some price coordination will be the objective given the coincidence of the announcement with rising world-market prices for rice and the fact that all prospective members are traditional rice producers with high current export levels or export potentials for rice. Statements by the involved countries in early May indicated that a price-fixing cartel would only serve to "worsen food security" and the organization's purpose is "to contribute to ensuring food stability, not just in an individual country but also to address food shortages in the region and the world". The discussion on a political agenda appears to be of a programmatic nature at this early stage with only few political statements being made to the public. Thailand's prime minister Mr. Samak was quoted in the Thai newspaper The Nation as saying that, “We [OREC] don’t aspire to be like OPEC, but we hope to be just a group of five to help each other in trading rice on the world market”. A few days later Cambodia's prime minister, in an attempt to allay fears in the region about the creation of rice exporting cartel, specified some of what he thinks may be the core principles of action of OREC, "[...] to contribute to ensuring food stability not just in individual countries but also to address food shortages in the region and the world.". He further added, "We shall not hoard (rice) and raise prices when there are shortages.", and that "[...]our friends in ASEAN should not be worried about creation of this association."

Criticism Philippines, the world's biggest rice importer, denounced the plans for the creation of OREC. Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank, opposed the organization's creation saying that it would be bad for both importers and exporters. Critics predict that a cartel on rice may be to the economic detriment of those who initiate it since rice producing countries may be able to expand their land under cultivation in the medium to long term. Members of the cartel may thus lose today's rice export markets with governments pushing towards stronger national production in order to achieve food self-reliance. Controlling the supply-side on a world scale may be a difficult goal to achieve for OREC. Herein can be seen a major difference to the oil-cartel OPEC.

Membership Cambodia Laos Myanmar Thailand Vietnam

See also 2007-2008 world food price crisis Food security Rice Cartel OPEC

References

External links OREC archived on April 7, 2022 World Food Situation Portal and Crop Prospects and Food Situation – No. 2, April 2008 (Statistical appendix) — FAO Food Prices Portal - International Food Policy Research Institute

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with OREC

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what OREC claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to OREC before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about OREC ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of OREC

In research: OREC appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses OREC in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: OREC is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cambodia–Vietnam relations, Foreign relations of Cambodia, Foreign relations of Laos, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for OREC outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study OREC in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what OREC means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain OREC out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is OREC in simple terms?

Why does OREC matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study OREC?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on OREC.