Tapioca smuggling drags down price: traders

  The comments came after yesterday’s meeting between the Internal Trade Department of the Commerce Ministry and the Thai Tapioca Traders Association aimed at reversing the price decline, which is hurting local farmers.
The government has blamed traders for the low price, saying they have colluded to pressure farmers to sell to them cheaply.
Teera Tantipanitkool, manager of the association, said the government should closely monitor smuggling of tapioca chip from Cam-bodia into border provinces in the East, since more than 300,000 tonnes of smuggled cassava had entered the country.
The price of tapioca chip from Cambodia is Bt6 per kilogram, and Bt1.70-Bt1.80 for fresh cassava, while the price of tapioca chip in the Kingdom is above Bt8 per kilo, as the pledging price for fresh cassava is currently Bt2.80.
The pledging price will gradually increase to Bt2.90 over the next two months. The current market price for fresh cassava is Bt1.30-Bt1.90 per kilo.
Teera said that because Cam-bodian tapioca chip is much cheaper than domestic cassava, traders have begun purchasing the neighbouring country’s cassava instead of the local product.
The association has called on the government to lower the pledging price to reflect the real market price and solve the smuggling problem, which is hurting domestic farmers.
Seree Denworalak, president of the association, said the government should either scrap the pledging programme or lower the pledging price to Bt2.50 per kilo.
He said traders would willingly pay a higher price when the market mechanism has done its work.