Government tackling falling rubber prices: Nattawut

September 4, 2012

BANGKOK, Sept 4 - Hundreds of rubber and coconut farmers are rallying outside Thailand's Government House Tuesday, demanding government intervention to lift sagging prices while Deputy Agriculture Minister Nattawut Saikua insisted he is pushing ahead to resolve the problem through local and international mechanisms.

Farmers' network coordinator Nanthapreecha Kamthong in the five southern provinces of Chumphon, Ranong, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani and Prachuab Khiri Khan petitioned the government by presenting their letter to an official of the Agriculture Ministry.

The farmers' representative urged the government to help restore the rubber price from its current 73 baht to 120 baht per kilogramme without grading by quality. They also called on the government to stop importing coconuts and to guarantee coconut prices as well as lift the price of palm price to 6 baht per kilogramme.

The protesters said they would wait to see the Cabinet reaction to their demand. If the response does not meet their expectation, they will stay put with more protesters coming to join the protest.

Minister Nattawut said, however, that the government was not ignoring the farmers’ hardship but had taken action to resolve the problem through both domestic measures and international mechanisms.

Mr Nattawut said he returned from Indonesia on Saturday after meeting the Indonesian trade minister on the rubber price situation.

He said the international rubber market has been affected by the global downturn and Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have mutually agreed that strong cooperation was needed to stabilise rubber prices.

Vietnam, the world fourth ranked rubber producer, will be invited to cooperate in a mechanism to maintain rubber prices and jointly plan a future strategy for rubber production, he said.

The minister said he is scheduled to visit Malaysia to discuss rubber pricing strategy with his Malaysian counterpart.

Cutting rubber export volume is also an option to shore up rubber prices, he said. (MCOT online news)

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