NCPO helps rice farmers by controlling costs

BANGKOK, July 6 (TNA) - After scrapping rice-pledging programme and rice price guarantee scheme, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has ordered the Commerce Ministry to assist farmers by controlling production costs. Effective since July 3, the price of chemical fertiliser has dropped by about 50 baht per sack while the price of insecticide is reduced between 5 – 10 per cent following the order of the Central Committee on Goods and Services Prices. Prices of these products must also be clearly displayed and complaints on overcharging can be made with the Ministry’s Internal Trade Department. Sellers have said they could reduce prices of the fertiliser and the insecticide but only in short-term because producers have to import raw materials.They insisted that prices have to base on market mechanisms. Farmers are, of course, happy as they see their production costs have declined to 615 baht per sack from over 700 baht previously. However, they are still worried on post-harvest prices and have asked the state to guarantee that rice prices stay between 8,000 – 9,000 baht per tonne in order to help them earn profit. (TNA)