BANGKOK, 2 September 2019(NNT) – The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives plans to propose to the cabinet guaranteed prices for rubber, to benefit the 1.4 million rubber farmers who have suffered losses for the last five years.
Agriculture Minister Chalermchai Sri-on said he plans to propose price the guarantee under the first phase of a price guaranteed project. All relevant sectors have held a meeting on the issue with the intent to raise the income of rubber farmers and reduce the negative effects of lowered rubber prices.
The guaranteed price is 60 baht per kilogram for raw rubber sheets, 57 baht per kilogram for fresh resin and 25 baht per kilogram for cup lumps of rubber. A volume of 20 kilograms of rubber is guaranteed per 0.06 hectares of plantation per month.
The measure will be implemented from October 2019 to September 2020 and rubber farmers may join the guaranteed price project on the condition that they register with the Rubber Authority of Thailand by August 12, 2019.
A total of about 1.4 million rubber farmers, 299,235 rubber cutters, Green Card holding, documented farmers and Pink Card holding, undocumented farmers are to be assisted under the project after they have sold their rubber at loss for over five years.
The agriculture minister said the measure calls for the identification of the farmers who are entitled to join the project, examination of their entitlements as well as assessment and gathering of related information, which will be submitted to the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, so that the bank can transfer the money to the rubber farmers’ accounts and notify such to the Rubber Authority of Thailand. The project will be publicized from September 15 and the money will be delivered to the rubber farmers on December 15, 2019.
