Slow start of the government’s rubber purchase programme



BANGKOK: -- Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha admitted yesterday (Tuesday) that government’s purchase of rubber directly from rubber growers fell short of expectation as many growers chose to sell their produce to traders to avoid the trouble of having to travel long distance to sell their produce to the government at purchasing points.

The prime minister however said rubber growers are free to sell their rubber produce to any buyers as the market price now has increased to a bit over 40 baht a kilogramme which is not much different from the 45 baht/kg set by the government.

About 70 tonnes of rubber were purchased on the first day of the launch of the programme to buy rubber directly from the growers at above-market price. The amount is short of expectation because of the problem of distance to the purchasing points and that the growers are required to process latex into rubber sheets or into the form of a cup.

Sluggish business was reported at most purchasing points due to several problems such as the points are located far away from rubber plantations of many growers and many growers have not registered with authorities.

Mr Tossaphol Kwanrod, president of rubber and oil palm growers network, suggested that purchasing points should be established in every tambon for growers’ convenience.

As for the next step, the prime minister said that machines have to be introduced in rubber tapping to replace man power and to save costs. However, he noted that the problem about redundancy among rubber tappers to be rendered by the use of machines would have to be taken into consideration as well.

The prime minister maintained that the 15 billion baht budget earmarked to help rubber growers would not be increased unless it was found to be insufficient.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/148229


-- Thai PBS 2016-01-27

I guess the government will be selling the new Rubber Tapper machines !

This is tantamount to printing money - you'll see!

You cannot just force the price, eventually the market will correct itself and then there will be hell to pay. What they should have done is let the price be as it is and provide say tax rebates (ohh I forgot either no one of the farmers pay taxes or they dont have the IT systems to do this sort of thing) or other incentives but only after a period of time say at tax time.

"purchase of rubber directly from rubber growers fell short of expectation as many growers chose to sell their produce to traders to avoid the trouble of having to travel long distance to sell their produce to the government at purchasing points."

Or maybe because the farmers realize that if they don't sell to the government at 45 Bt/kg, the government will be forced to pay MORE?

Prayut virtually promised he'll pay more: "the 15 billion baht budget earmarked to help rubber growers would not be increased unless it was found to be insufficient." Farmers find it's insufficient, especially since they've been asking for 65 Bt/kg that is about their production cost.

Now there's a surprise ! Who'da thought...

Each farmer is limited to 150 kg. How far would you travel for a 5 baht better price per kg?

"purchase of rubber directly from rubber growers fell short of expectation as many growers chose to sell their produce to traders to avoid the trouble of having to travel long distance to sell their produce to the government at purchasing points."

Or maybe because the farmers realize that if they don't sell to the government at 45 Bt/kg, the government will be forced to pay MORE?

Prayut virtually promised he'll pay more: "the 15 billion baht budget earmarked to help rubber growers would not be increased unless it was found to be insufficient." Farmers find it's insufficient, especially since they've been asking for 65 Bt/kg that is about their production cost.

If the farmers don't sell to the government that's their decision. They are free to sell to anyone. The more they sell to others the more happy the government will be.