"Retail sugar prices will soon rise by as much as 37% following the cabinet's decision yesterday to approve an increase of five baht a kilogramme in the ex-factory price of the commodity. Industry Minister Suwit Khunkitti said the increase needed to take place as soon as possible to prevent hoarding. All sugar stock movements have been suspended until the new prices take effect, he said. The increase will become official as soon as the decision is published in the Royal Gazette.
The price increase was proposed by the Office of the Cane and Sugar Board (OCSB) in a bid to meet rising costs of cane production and cover a promised increase in cane prices to 807 baht a tonne for farmers. The decision will push the ex-factory price of raw sugar to 19 baht per kilogramme from 14 baht, with refined sugar rising to 20 baht from 15 baht.
The retail price with VAT will jump from 17.25 baht to about 23.60 baht per kilogramme, which is still almost 35% less than what consumers in many other countries pay. All proceeds from the additional five-baht increase will go to the Cane and Sugar Fund to help alleviate cane farmers' debts. . .
Rattanaporn Chuengsanguansit, the OCSB secretary-general, said the cabinet made the right decision.
''Without support, they (cane farmers) would shift to other crops resulting in sugar output declining, which will damage the country's cane and sugar industry in the long run,'' she said. ''Farmers deserve to be paid better as cane prices have always been calculated from selling prices and not from production costs.'' Ms Rattanaporn said a satellite survey in February showed that 330,000 rai of cane farms had been converted to other crops.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/30Apr2008_biz32.php
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Sugar pries to rise 37 % in Thailand
Started by Gene, Apr 30 2008 10:53 AM
1 reply to this topic
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Posted 30 April 2008 - 01:35 PM
QUOTE
All proceeds from the additional five-baht increase will go to the Cane and Sugar Fund to help alleviate cane farmers' debts.
In other words, we are all being asked to subsidize the Thai farmers to produce a sugar crop being sold at controlled prices on a commodity for which there is probably one of the biggest gluts in world supply.
I have to confess that I do not understand the trading and inflationary madness that seems to have taken over the world commodities markets and what looks to be a runaway world market speculating on everything, from oil to nuts. The dot-com boom and bust, followed by the real estate boom and bust, the dollar's collapse and the bear market in many stocks, seems to have left the speculators of the world settling on commodities as the next casino.
