Thai Police Ordered To Nab Palm Oil Cheats

[webfact]

Police ordered to nab palm oil cheats

By The Nation

Police across the country have been instructed to make immediate arrests of retail vendors who sell palm oil at prices higher than Bt47 a bottle.

The urgent order was issued via video conferencing to all police headquarters by Pol General Phongsaphat Phongjaroen, who heads a taskforce tackling hoarding and overpricing of palm oil.

He made no mention of action against wholesale vendors selling palm oil at already inflated prices to retail vendors.

"At whatever price retail vendors buy palm oil, selling it at prices higher than Bt47 a bottle is a crime," he later told a news conference.

"It is unfair that retail vendors who buy palm oil at a price higher than Bt47 have to sell it for no more than that, but consumers don't want palm oil to be more expensive that Bt47 a bottle," he said.

-- The Nation 2011-03-05

[AleG]

So they won't go after the actual culprits and instead harass the small fish, I guess rich oil producers would make too much trouble if inconvenienced by the police.

If the supplier sell at more than 47 the retailers have to lose money, go to jail or not sell oil at all; I have the feeling they'd chose the later and a measure like this would only make the shortage worse.

[gotlost]

What a crock of BS. Sensational reporting with no effect.

[ginjag]

What a crock of BS. Sensational reporting with no effect.

Get the plantation hi,so,s....the scum....the wholesale BIG merchants,, also get hold of the smaller wholesale distributers..NOT THE LITTLE shop trader who wants 2 baht a bottle profit......same old Thailand a few more coffers for the local police to get for a rainy day.....WHO ordered the police to do it----THE owners of the palm plantations...............maybe !!!

[whybother]

The retailers DO have a choice not to buy it if they can't make a profit from it.

[janverbeem]

I would have thought that a police general at least should have had an education at primary level.

[Crushdepth]

"At whatever price retail vendors buy palm oil, selling it at prices higher than Bt47 a bottle is a crime" he later told a news conference

Call batman, we're in real trouble.

[ginjag]

The retailers DO have a choice not to buy it if they can't make a profit from it.

Well meant maybe, but not all consumers are Bkk or other cities. Picture this a small village--or town............their little farm workers want some oil. the small shop has to supply it. he will have to pay over to get it as his little business will die on him, oil is used everyday in volumes by the masses, you cannot stop buying it on principle. But I know what you mean. WE WOULD DO IT...I know a small market trader who has to pay 47 bht to the small wholesaler, she is selling it for 50 bht-you cant blame her for doing it, she has to get a bit, or she is working for nothing---the big storey is the police have been instructed to NAB this lady for selling above 47 bht.... as I said before NAB the palm plantation owners, for stockpiling...we know who some of them are don't we.??

[doggie888888]

And there was an article in BKK Post a few days ago that Thailand can import palm oil from Malaysia at over 40% lower cost. Apparently production costs in Thailand is 54baht per liter (to import from Malaysia is 38baht per liter). The end price to consumer is subsidised heavily to keep inefficient local producers doing what they do best, that is, to continue to be inefficient and to reap undeserved profits at the public's expense. The subsidies are not even enough to keep the prices lower than if they were to import! Mind you, labor costs are higher in Malaysia too.

So, Thai taxpayers pay vis a vis the subsidies from public funds and then pay again at the shop at a higher price than is "optimal". Talk about getting screwed from both ends.

I don't know about the palm oil industry here but I hazard a guess that it would be owned by a few familiar names. I guess it is easier for the police to scapegoat the smallest minnow in the supply chain than to address the real problem (although I am not sure the police alone can solve the problem with silly threats aimed at the wrong perpertrators). How can selling a bottle at 47baht (looks like a1liter bottle in the pic?) be a crime when it cost 54baht to produce????????????????

I know other countries also have subsidies to protect local agriculture but the whole charade here so clearly defines concepts such as cronyism and vested interests.

[LindsayBKK]

I was on a Van from Penang to Hat Yai only a few days ago and the driver smuggled 4 x5L? Palm Oil (large anyway) bottles across the border.

All the passengers could see and he made a stop just after the border at a shop to unload it & counting his cash.

[Crushdepth]

Palm oil is a health hazard anyway. As far as I'm concerned if they start cooking in something less nasty I'm happy.

[kkerry]

I was in a few Bangkok Tesco, Carrefour and Big C shops Thursday and Friday and the shelves were still totally empty of palm oil.

Sounds like the rice crisis all over again when supermarkets had no stock yet in one row of shop houses I was shown enough large sacks of rice stacked to the ceiling to easily stock several large supermarkets. It was amazing how the buildings didn't collapse under all the weight.

[ginjag]

And there was an article in BKK Post a few days ago that Thailand can import palm oil from Malaysia at over 40% lower cost. Apparently production costs in Thailand is 54baht per liter (to import from Malaysia is 38baht per liter). The end price to consumer is subsidised heavily to keep inefficient local producers doing what they do best, that is, to continue to be inefficient and to reap undeserved profits at the public's expense. The subsidies are not even enough to keep the prices lower than if they were to import! Mind you, labor costs are higher in Malaysia too.

So, Thai taxpayers pay vis a vis the subsidies from public funds and then pay again at the shop at a higher price than is "optimal". Talk about getting screwed from both ends.

I don't know about the palm oil industry here but I hazard a guess that it would be owned by a few familiar names. I guess it is easier for the police to scapegoat the smallest minnow in the supply chain than to address the real problem (although I am not sure the police alone can solve the problem with silly threats aimed at the wrong perpertrators). How can selling a bottle at 47baht (looks like a1liter bottle in the pic?) be a crime when it cost 54baht to produce????????????????

I know other countries also have subsidies to protect local agriculture but the whole charade here so clearly defines concepts such as cronyism and vested interests.

Good post...............Production costs in Thailand are 54 bht a litre......this is outrageous.. it is simply NOT true,..... why don't someone break down the costs, and give them to us ??? on reflection, maybe they are paying the plantation workers western wages ?????.........no one challenges these figures as the plantations -or at least one is owned by (you know who-his name was quoted in the forum not long ago)..Malaya pays higher wages than Thailand..so how can you buy it at 40 per cent lower there ????? all this palm oil business is a sick moneymaking racket. again robbing their own people..as always.

[Cnxforever]

And there was an article in BKK Post a few days ago that Thailand can import palm oil from Malaysia at over 40% lower cost. Apparently production costs in Thailand is 54baht per liter (to import from Malaysia is 38baht per liter). The end price to consumer is subsidised heavily to keep inefficient local producers doing what they do best, that is, to continue to be inefficient and to reap undeserved profits at the public's expense. The subsidies are not even enough to keep the prices lower than if they were to import! Mind you, labor costs are higher in Malaysia too.

So, Thai taxpayers pay vis a vis the subsidies from public funds and then pay again at the shop at a higher price than is "optimal". Talk about getting screwed from both ends.

I don't know about the palm oil industry here but I hazard a guess that it would be owned by a few familiar names. I guess it is easier for the police to scapegoat the smallest minnow in the supply chain than to address the real problem (although I am not sure the police alone can solve the problem with silly threats aimed at the wrong perpertrators). How can selling a bottle at 47baht (looks like a1liter bottle in the pic?) be a crime when it cost 54baht to produce????????????????

I know other countries also have subsidies to protect local agriculture but the whole charade here so clearly defines concepts such as cronyism and vested interests.

Good post...............Production costs in Thailand are 54 bht a litre......this is outrageous.. it is simply NOT true,..... why don't someone break down the costs, and give them to us ??? on reflection, maybe they are paying the plantation workers western wages ?????.........no one challenges these figures as the plantations -or at least one is owned by (you know who-his name was quoted in the forum not long ago)..Malaya pays higher wages than Thailand..so how can you buy it at 40 per cent lower there ????? all this palm oil business is a sick moneymaking racket. again robbing their own people..as always.

you are absolutely right! This is what you get if competition is not allowed and the entire palm oil trade is in the hands of 5 Thai families including a certain deputy PM's family - they will make sure imports from Malaysia are not allowed or heavily taxed with import duty - to protect their corrupt business practices.

This is not only the case with palm oil but with everything else that the elite here controls - if they would allow real competition they would all be out of business very soon or learn how to be competitive and the consumers would benefit - but since they control the lawmakers it will never happen and the Thai people will be taken to the cleaners forever!

If everything else fails then they start waving the Thai flag and people until now where so naive and thought the few families who own a large chunk of this country - filling their large pockets - are doing it because they work for their country! The brainwashing has been perfected to a point where if things go wrong all they need to do is wave the flag, through in a bit of nationalism and the masses gather around them - it surely must be bad for you as a "real" Thai to consume cheaper "foreign" palm oil - and can you imagine the damage you would cause to the "country" ("country" of course meaning a few super-rich families)

Remember a slogan by a brewery owned by one of the richest families here suggesting subconsciously if you drank any other beer then theirs you where "unpatriotic"! In addition they of course had legal restrictions in place regarding the totally unrealistic minimum production of any would be competitors - to prevent any real competition from happening.

It is ridiculous what prices Thais are paying for some items compared to their income. But of course the powerful and rich want to keep it that way - after all they live in luxury on the back of their poor and intentionally under educated countrymen.

When will the Thais ever wake up and ask why they are paying 1.5 million Baht for the same Japanese car - with less extras (like the number of airbags e.g.) - assembled with cheap Thai labor - which costs about 950.000 Baht with more extras - assembled by far more expensive American labor - if you buy it in the US!