Southern palm oil farmers demand higher price

Krabi palm oil farmers yesterday dumped tons of palm oil nuts at the City Hall during their rally to protest over falling price of their harvested palm nuts.

They demanded the state to buy palm nuts from them at price higher than market price in bid to shore up prices.

The rally at the Krabi City Hall was held a free the price of palm oil nuts fell to 2.7 baht per kilogram.

They brought with them some 30 farm trucks fully packed with palm oil nuts and called for the government to recognize their suffering and demanded it to urgently solve the falling palm oil price.

Leader of the protester asked Krabi governor Songpol Sawasditham to pass on their grievance to the government.

He said price of palm oil nuts has continued falling and famers are facing losses from the drop.

He said farmers wanted the government to purchase their harvest at 5 baht per kilogram and to compensate for their losses.

The palm oil famers later unloaded palm oil nuts from their trucks and dumped them in front of the city hall.

Some 20 security officials were at the hall to ensure security during the farmers’ rally.

Deputy director of the Office of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) in Krabi and provincial commerce minister later came out to receive the letter from the protesting farmers and discussed with them about their problem.

The palm oils farmers dispersed and went home after authorities promised to raise their trouble s with relevant government agencies.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/southern-palm-oil-farmers-demand-higher-price

-- Thai PBS 2015-08-29

First rice, now palm oil nuts, given the drop in sugar prices I suspect the cane grower to be next. I do not blame the farmers as they appear to have little understanding of the "market".

I do, however, blame this and preceding governments for perpetuating the myth that they have all the answers and can control the world prices.

if you can sell your crop at the market price then change crops or stop farming

I hope palm oil prices collapse completely.......the most insideous crop that can be grown!

...palm oil sells for 80-100 baht per kilo.....

...how many kilos of nuts needed for that.....

...and who IS making all the money......

On 2015-05-05 the government announced that the palm oil price must be Bt4 per kilogram but the latest price was Bt3 per kilogram.

On 2015-05-20 the government raised the price to Bt4.2 per kilogram using a Bt2.6 billion fund and purchased 100,000 tons of raw palm oil from palm oil extraction factories.

Now with market prices falling to 2.7 baht per kilogram, the government is being asked to purchase their harvest at 5 baht per kilogram and to compensate for their losses.

This will be Somkid's first test in stabilizing the agricultural economy.

In the past Prayut would simply dole out subsidies on demand that only stave off a collapsing agricultural industry in exchange for short-term political support. Will Somkid attempt a broader, less populist approach without regard to political consequence or will he conform to Prayut's traditional "vote buying" strategy?

In a way this will be Prayut's first test as well as to the extent he will allow his new economic team to change Thailand's economic roadmap. In the past the Southern palm oil and rubber growers have been staunch junta supporters and have consistently received quick economic assistance from Prayut. With the upcoming possible referendum on the new constitution, Prayut may not want too quickly isolate that political base.

First rice, now palm oil nuts, given the drop in sugar prices I suspect the cane grower to be next. I do not blame the farmers as they appear to have little understanding of the "market".

I do, however, blame this and preceding governments for perpetuating the myth that they have all the answers and can control the world prices.

Don't forget the rubber guys, and cassava etc..etc...

absolutely right of the farmers to protest 2 .7 baht a kilo is absolutely scandalous I think I would do the same .

A post containing an aberrant misspelling of a former PM's name has been removed. If you don't want your post to be removed, spell people's names correctly.

I hope palm oil prices collapse completely.......the most insideous crop that can be grown!

What is wrong with this crop?

Nothing wrong with this crop at all.

For those interested, here are the prices farmers have received for their crop since September 2012.

Prices Palm.pdf

I hope palm oil prices collapse completely.......the most insideous crop that can be grown!

Can you explain why?

...palm oil sells for 80-100 baht per kilo.....

...how many kilos of nuts needed for that.....

...and who IS making all the money......

You can roughly count that the output of the harvested palm nuts into palm oil is approximately 20%.

So, if you have 1.000 Kg of nuts, you will extract roughly 200 Kgs of Palm Oil.

So, if Palm Oil sells at 100 Baht per Kg as you state, approximately 5 Kg of nuts are needed to produce this.

At the current price of 3 Baht per KG nuts, that's 15 Baht for one Kg of Oil.

The difference between the 15 Baht for the farmer and 80 to 100 Baht for the oil of course counts for the oil extracting process and a huge net margin!