THAILAND: Rubber row flares amid rally threat
Rubber farmers in the South are threatening to stage a major rally and a hunger strike if their demands for government action to shore up falling prices are not met.
Saksarit Sriprasart, a leader of rubber farmers in Trang, said a network of small planters in the southern province would start a hunger strike in front of the provincial hall on 12 Jan 2016 until their demands are met.
"When the hunger strike will end depends on the government's policy.
"The hunger strike will continue until we achieve victory," he said.
Prathop Suksanan, president of the Southern Rubber Planters Network, said its members held a forum at the Rubber Authority of Thailand's Trang Office on 12 Jan 2016 to prepare their demands for government assistance. He said the group has four demands for consideration at the meeting.
Firstly, it wants the Rubber Authority of Thailand to reveal the details of a contract to sell 200,000 tons of rubber products to the Chinese company, Sino Camp Iko. It also wants to ask the government to speed up appointments for the new board of the Rubber Authority of Thailand as two candidates it has proposed have not been appointed.
The group also wants the government to accelerate compensation payments to rubber growers suffering from tumbling prices. Only 2,000 farmers have received the money. Last November, the government approved spending of 12 billion baht, or 1,500 baht per rai for a maximum of 15 rai per farmer, to help them with production costs. Plantation owners will receive 900 baht per rai for up to 15 rai and tappers will get 600 baht per rai for a maximum of 15 rai.
The group also wants Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha or the agriculture minister to meet rubber farmers and listen to their demands instead of sending representatives to receive their complaints. The government has earlier ruled out stepping in with subsidies to shore up rubber prices, saying the cost would be exorbitant.
Prathop said the network hopes the meeting to discuss the rubber price slump on 12 Jan 2016 will be the last and the government will accept their demands and take action to address the problem. If the government ignores their demands, the network will discuss the possibility of raising the pressure to a higher level, he said.
Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd on 10 Jan 2016 said representatives of all stakeholders -- planters, buyers and government officials -- came to a conclusion on how to address the problem at a meeting on 7 Jan 2016. The meeting agreed the agencies involved will buy rubber products at prices that are not lower than current prices, Maj Gen Sansern said.
Currently, Grade 3 raw rubber sheets are sold at 34 baht per kilogramme.
Maj Gen Sansern said Gen Prayut has ordered eight ministries -- Transport, Interior, Education, Public Health, Defense, Industry, Commerce and Agriculture -- to use their own budgets to buy rubber to boost domestic use of the product. Maj Gen Sansern said the government is trying as hard as it can to help farmers who suffer from low prices, and applying more pressure will not solve the problem.
Source: Daily “The Bangkok Post”, Bangkok; 11 Jan 2016
(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)