Bt30bn sought to stabilize Thailand's rubber prices

BANGKOK, September 14 (TNA) - The Cabinet is expected to approve a 30-billion-baht state budget to fund a project to stabilize Thailand's rubber prices at its weekly meeting next week, as sought by the Natural Rubber Policy Committee. Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Natthawut Saikua said the committee would like the Thai government to disburse 5 billion baht at a time for the rubber price stabilization project. As a long-term plan, Natthawut acknowledged, the Natural Rubber Policy Committee has ordered his ministry and the Ministry of Transport to conduct a feasibility study on the construction of rubber roads in Thailand to replace asphalt pavement in order to promote rubber cultivation and consumption in the country. Besides, the committee is studying the use of rubber as a raw material to produce railroad ties. Rubber prices in Thailand now stand around 83.24 baht per kilogram. Meanwhile, the deputy agriculture and cooperatives minister led his entourage, including officers from the Royal Thai Police's forensics unit, visited a burnt-down rubber warehouse in Thailand's southern Nakhon Si Thammarat Province on Friday to look into Thursday's fire, which has badly damaged the warehouse, owned by Mitr Thai Holdings Company Limited, where thousands of tons of rubbers under government projects were stocks. The deputy minister said, after finding all the rubber stocks were destroyed, that he has set up a committee to investigate the cause of the fire, acknowledging that the burnt-down rubber warehouse met required standard, and that its insurance policy should cover all the damage.(TNA)