Blockade delays shipments to the capital

[Lite Beer]

Blockade delays shipments to the capital

Goods shipments including seafood are suffering delays after rice farmers started blocking the southern-bound highway to pressure the government to speed up rice payments

THAILAND: The blockage of the southern-bound highway by farmers has begun to take its toll on goods shipments such as seafood, as protesters vowed to put more pressure on the government to accelerate delayed rice payments.

Yoo Chienyuenyongpong, chairman of the Land Transport Federation of Thailand, said shipments bound to and from the South face delays of about five hours, as the blockage of Rama II Road has lasted three days.

Rice growers from several western and central provinces are blocking the highway at the Wang Manao intersection in Ratchaburi's Pak Tho district, demanding the government quickly come up with delayed payments under the rice pledging scheme.

"Transport operators have managed to use alternative indirect routes, which resulted in delays of four or five hours," said Mr Yoo.

Shipments of consumer goods have been affected along with seafood, the majority of which comes from the southern provinces such as Prachuap Khiri Khan and Chumphon, he said.

"We hope negotiations with the protest farmers continue and the road blockage is not prolonged," added Mr Yoo.

Federation adviser Thongyu Khongkan said the blockage has led to higher transportation costs and could cause price increases if the situation is prolonged. Eventually consumer goods and fuels supplies might face a shortage.

"If the protest lasts longer than a week, a supply shortage would be unavoidable," he said.

"Economies in the southern provinces will suffer after being affected by natural rubber price protests last year."

Poj Aramwattananont, president of the Thai Frozen Foods Association, said shipments now take longer to reach factories in the central provinces of Samut Sakhon and Samut Songkhram due to traffic jams on other routes.

Visit Limlurcha, vice-president of the Federation of Thai Industries' food processing industry club, said Rama II Road houses a large amount of seafood producers, and usually ice is used to transport fresh food and seafood. If trucks need to travel for longer periods, more ice will be needed.

Another alternative is to store the products in a nearby chiller or freezing room, said Mr Visit.

Either way, it adds to costs if the situation lingers for a long period, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises.

"Another important outcome is domestic consumers will choose to consume other types of food if the products cannot be transported," said Mr Visit.

Paisarn Aowstaporn, an executive vice-president of Oishi Group Plc, the operator of Oishi restaurants, said it has prepared some measures to handle the situation if the blockade worsens.

Its logistics providers will find alternative routes to transport foods and raw materials from Bangkok to the South.

The company has 10 restaurants in that region.

"If we can't find alternative routes, we'll transport our foods and raw materials by air. We used air cargo during the floods in 2011," said Mr Paisarn.


-- Phuket News 2014-02-04

[Loles]

The next very comfortable situation.

Police? Army? Anybody?

[LuckyLew]

This sounds like a job for Chalerm ... 555 .... wait we need the issue solved ... so scrap that request for Chalerm

[Why ask]

Don't think I'd be in my car next to that big red box, after yesterday!

with Respect to the driver maewan.

[mightyatom]

The government seems to be getting attacked from all directions. I think it is seriously time to reconsider their position. They are no longer as popular as they think they were. When all the real numbers come out of the election, I reckon they will have less than 20% of all available votes and that is not representative of the majority. Plus their presence is dragging the country down by the day.

Time to give up.

[samba2014]

Drove by the blockade this afternoon and the delay was about 20 minutes. No big deal.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[RubbaJohnny]

Manao and prawns ,where else.

A hub for Tom Fool Yam?

[spirit47]

Time to stock goods again, the freezer is full allready, now must fill up the shelfs...amazing Thailand, good to have a garden...

[trogers]

The government seems to be getting attacked from all directions. I think it is seriously time to reconsider their position. They are no longer as popular as they think they were. When all the real numbers come out of the election, I reckon they will have less than 20% of all available votes and that is not representative of the majority. Plus their presence is dragging the country down by the day.

Time to give up.

It never rains but it pours...

[Sayonarax]

A whole five hours.. while they have spent months with out receiving payment for their goods.

[Suriya4]

Drove by the blockade this afternoon and the delay was about 20 minutes. No big deal.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Why only block half the road?

Why not block off the whole road in BOTH directions?

No wonder they say poor farmers is not as highly educated as the Bangkok protesters.

Or they do not have enough people to block the roads?

[surangw]

Time to stock goods again, the freezer is full allready, now must fill up the shelfs...amazing Thailand, good to have a garden...

good plan unless the power goes out.

our stupid condo building does not allow gas powered table stoves. ( i guess they figure the average thai would asphyxiate themselves using one indoors)

[asiamint]

Just like to confirm along with a few other posters that it took me around 25mins extra On Tuesday to take the diversion route.

How they come up with the figure of 5 hours is beyond me.

A complete lie

[noitom]

Everything is working fine in Bangkok. Just avoid the protest areas, no need to be concerned. It will all be over soon. This is the Thai morphine drip period.

[chainarong]

It certainly a shame that people have to resort to these sort of tactics to be heard , it should be a simple procedure to pay the farmers what was promised , obviously a promise from the PTP is worth sFa, very bad policies, created by desperate people to stay in power , the farmers would know by now that the former governments system was superior and was payable on demand, because it was money set aside in the budget appropriations , the farmers have been taken for a ride and they have a right to be angry.

[ajarnmarc]

Just like to confirm along with a few other posters that it took me around 25mins extra On Tuesday to take the diversion route.

How they come up with the figure of 5 hours is beyond me.

A complete lie

Thanks for the update,

greatly appreciated,

as we receive shipments daily to support our business,

and the transport companies are already trying to cash in on the situation.