Ministry to ask producers to freeze prices for 4 months
The Commerce Ministry will meet tomorrow with more than 200 food and consumer goods manufacturers to ask their cooperation to freeze prices for at least four months before it reveals the cost structure of daily necessities to the public.
“Some large consumer goods manufacturers have already agreed to freeze their retail prices. The ministry has also studied the cost structure of essential goods, whose retail prices may be able to remain unchanged until the end of this year,” Vatchari Vimooktayon, director-general of the Internal Trade Department, said last week.
The government has come under pressure from consumers to curb the skyrocketing cost of living.
Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom will chair the meeting. The ministry will also review the cost structure of some goods so that producers and retailers would understand the government’s price-control measures.
The ministry would monitor “entrance fees” modern trade outlets charge wholesalers after finding that retail prices were hiked to cover higher operating costs.
Modern retailers should not raise fees too high as they would affect the operating costs of producers and the final retail prices of goods. If modern retailers face higher management costs from the new Bt300 minimum wage, they should improve their efficiency rather than pass the burden on to consumers, Vatchari said.
The department would only control the entrance fees of some necessities, while allowing modern retailers to increase fees for non-essential goods such as cosmetics, he added.
Sarawut Sakulmeerit, president of the Public Warehouse Organisation, said the first shipment of imported crude palm oil arrived in Thailand on Friday. The government would allocate 10,000 tonnes of crude palm oil to cooking oil producers so that they can sell to consumers at the controlled price of Bt42 per 1-litre bottle soon.
The imported crude palm oil is worth Bt31 per kilogram.
The import of crude palm oil would ensure that the retail price for cooking palm oil would not increase, by keeping the cost of raw materials low. The retail price of cooking palm oil should stay unchanged as more supply of raw materials will come onto the market. The harvest season for domestic palm fruit would begin by the end of this month, he added.
