From a Reuters article, a revived idea promoted in Thailand by a TV chef!

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A proposed "OPEC-style" rice cartel in Southeast Asia will go nowhere due to the inability of governments to cooperate with each other and control output from their farmers, analysts and traders said on Friday.

The proposal, which threatens to add to global food supply fears amid record high rice prices, failed to gain traction seven years ago when it was first floated by Bangkok -- and most see little chance it will fare better this time around.

The five mainland Southeast Asian nations produce a combined 60 million tons of milled rice each year, about 14 percent of world output.

"It's impossible. We can't fix prices as OPEC does because we can't control our production like OPEC," Chookiat Ophaswongse, President of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, told Reuters.

"It might be easy for Communist Laos or Vietnam to control their farmers, but we can't do that in a free-market economy like Thailand. Farmers will rush to grow more rice when prices go up and shift to other crops when prices fall," he said.

Catterwell said the five countries may agree on a broad price band, but it would be hard to enforce and buyers could go elsewhere, such as India, which can export as much as 5 million tons of rice annually.

Well there you have it - Econ 101, supply-side, in a nut shell.  Farmers respond to the price (mostly), in a free market: an increase in price will lead to more production - so expect it!  Cambodia is looking to the group for better technology, seeds and fertilizer, the article states!