Thai farmers plan new mass rally over failing crop prices

BANGKOK, August 24 (TNA) - Thai farmers, mostly rubber growers, have vowed to stage a new mass rally at Bangkok's Government House early next month to pressure the government to urgently solve the falling prices of their crops, including oil palm. Sompong Rajsuwan, chair of a network of rubber growers in Thailand's southern Songhkla province, told reporters on Saturday that rubber growers from all Thai regions will join the mass rally against the government’s failure to stop rubber prices from plunging, set on September 3, noting that the move is in accordance with the National Rubber Committee’s resolution. Sompong said the price of smoked rubber sheets, classed 3, should be at 101 baht per kilogramme, raw rubber sheets, classed 3, at 92 baht per kilogramme, rubber latex at 81 baht per kilogramme and block rubber at 83 baht per kilogramme, but the current price of rubber products is at about 60 baht per kilogramme, causing a huge loss to local rubber growers. Rubber farmers from the central and the eastern Thai regions will, therefore, travel to meet with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at the Government House on September 3, while those from other regions will meet at their appointed rally sites to wait and hear the government’s response on that day, namely those from 14 southern Thai provinces will gather in Surat Thani province. Sompong stressed that the planned rally will be peaceful and they do not plan to march around, calling for police not to stop or break up the upcoming rally, as local rubber growers are in serious trouble. Sompong's announcement came amid a continual rally of some 500 farmers who also blocked a main highway in the Thai South to demand that the Thai government urgently solve the falling prices of their crops, mainly rubber and oil palm. The farmers from Nakhon Si Thammarat and nearby southern Thai provinces, who rallied in Nakhon Si Thammarat's Cha-uat district, even clashed with local police trying to disperse their rally on Friday afternoon, causing more than 40 people injured. The southern farmers, however, continued their street protest on Saturday. (TNA)