BANGKOK (NNT) - The Ministry of Commerce has imposed a six-month price freeze on chicken products to help consumers with alternative options due to soaring pork prices.

 

According to Wattanasak Sur-iam, director-general of the Internal Trade Department, the department has negotiated with chicken and egg-laying hen farmers to impose a price ceiling on chicken and egg prices for six months. The freeze will be in effect from mid-January to mid-June 2022.

 

Live chickens will be priced at 33.50 baht per kilogram. Fresh chickens - including or excluding offals - will cost 60-65 baht/kg, while chicken thighs and drumsticks will be priced at 60-65 baht/kg and chicken breasts at 65-70 baht/kg. Authorities are also currently negotiating with egg-laying hen farmers and the Department of Livestock Development to maintain the price of assorted chicken eggs at 3 baht per egg.

 

Officials say chicken and egg supplies are still able to meet consumer demand, with pork being the only product with issues due to low supply and high demand. Live pigs are priced at 108 baht/kg and the Ministry of Commerce has set up stalls to sell pork at 150 baht/kg until the end of January.

 

Wattanasak warns that price gougers will face legal action, with fines of up to 140,000 baht or up to 7 years in prison, or both.

He added that legal action will be taken against those found hoarding pork and hiking prices during the department’s inspection of pork supplies on January 10.

 

The director-general also said the ministry will initiate additional campaigns, such as setting up stalls nationwide to sell products to people at an affordable rates, cooperating with manufacturers to provide more products for the Blue Flag scheme, and assisting farmers with their feed costs and rising expenses.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2022-01-12

 

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Obviously nobody in the Commerce Department has taken an economics class (or at least the top decision makers); as the the way to increase the supply of chickens is to RAISE the price so that farmers raise more of them and thus causing the price to drop. 

35 minutes ago, Pattaya Spotter said:

Obviously nobody in the Commerce Department has taken an economics class (or at least the top decision makers); as the the way to increase the supply of chickens is to RAISE the price so that farmers raise more of them and thus causing the price to drop. 

All good until you comprehend the scale of existing operations that would find it easier to raise  production prices out of line with production costs rather than spend millions in increasing capacity to meet a surge in consumer demand that is probably temporary due to the current pork meat shortages.

Over capacity  can cause a price drops but also marginal viability which then can cause a backlash as producers fail which creates a surge in prices.

Price controls initially can be viewed as market interference but if applied to level ongoing operational viability where nominal inflationary factors are acknowledged but negate gouging the overall benefit is appreciable. As component of diet and expenditure for the average population in Asia food is relatively expensive and often lacking in adequate quality protein intake.

An aggravating factor is the current  number of people with no employment who no doubt  encroaching on the provisional capacity of those who do.

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The Ministry of Commerce has imposed a six-month price freeze on chicken products to help consumers with alternative options due to soaring pork prices

Why interfere with chicken prices... just freeze the price of pork?

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Officials say chicken and egg supplies are still able to meet consumer demand, with pork being the only product with issues due to low supply and high demand.

BS... every pork vendor in my local market [of which there are many] have stalls full to the brim with pork.

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The Ministry of Commerce has imposed a six-month price freeze on chicken products

Why don't they just impose a price decrease or better yet impose that the farmers give them away free. 

Imposing price restrictions on any product is a sure way to make sure that those who are producing the product stop producing it if the price they can sell it at is not sufficient for them to raise or make it. 

 

Freeze chicken prices because pork prices are skyrocketing.  ????

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

a six-month price freeze on chicken products

A new meaning to "frozen chicken" ?????