Commerce Ministry will handle palm nut oversupply

NONTHABURI, Oct 27 (TNA) -- The Director-General of the Internal Trade Department said palm nuts would be partly acquired from markets to tackle oversupply which caused the price of oil palm nuts to plunge. Boonyarit Kalayanamit, director-general of the department, said he was discussing the absorption plan with relevant government and private organizations and the committee supervising policies on oil palm was likely to address the issue in early November. Stocks of palm oil were soaring and the price of palm nuts started to drop because yields of raw palm nuts were unusually high, he said. The director-general insisted that palm oil was not smuggled into the country because the local palm oil price was lower than those in other palm oil-producing countries. The Commerce Ministry set the price of raw palm nuts at 4 baht per kilogram, Mr Boonyarit said. (TNA)