Thai government to intervene rubber prices

BANGKOK, July 7 (TNA) - Thai Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Nattawut Saikua says that the government-run Natural Rubber Policy Committee has authorized the Rubber Estate Organization (REO) to purchase third-grade non-smoked rubber sheets and smoked rubber sheets from local farmers at an officially-intervened price of 3 baht higher than their market rates currently. Nattawut told reporters Saturday that the natural rubber policy committee has given a nod for the REO to use a 15-billion-baht fund under the rubber price stabilization scheme, which was earlier approved by the Thai Cabinet, for the purchase, and that the move is part of the government attempts to push up the declining domestic rubber prices caused by impacts from the ongoing Eurozone debt crisis and the slowdown of China’s economy. Nattawut revealed that the committee will forward the detailed plan before the meeting of the Council of Economic Ministers next week for consideration, before sailing it to the Cabinet for a final approval. According to the deputy minister, the government's intervened prices will be 92.86 baht per kilogram for third-grade non-smoked rubber sheets and 95.41 baht per kilogram for smoked rubber sheets. The deputy minister acknowledged that Thailand also plans to sell natural rubber to China through government-to-government or government-to-private deals, as China’s demand for rubber remains high, and that he will soon travel to Dongying City in China's Shandong province for the rubber trade talks. (TNA)