Price control set for seven food dishes

After yesterday’s meeting of the subcommittee on fast-food price control, the ministry said it would establish a recommended maximum price of Bt30 per dish for seven common menu items sold by food vendors and traders in the bulk of the 38 provinces, and of Bt35 per dish for provinces in the South.

Prices in the southern provinces are higher than in other regions because of higher costs of production and logistics, while income per capita in the region is also above that in the other areas covered by the measure.

Permanent secretary Yanyong Phuangrach said the ministry would only announce recommended prices for food vendors and traders, and would closely monitor market movements every two weeks.

"The ministry could consider a [more] stringent measure for controlling the price of fast food in the future if it finds that food vendors and traders have not followed the price recommendation," he said.

Under the ministry’s overall price-control measures, if any enterprise raises prices without good reason, it will be subject to a Bt140,000 fine and/or seven years in prison.

The seven foods subject to the Bt30-Bt35 per dish recommendation include fried rice with pork or chicken, rice with curry, pork or chicken noodles, egg and pork in brown sauce with rice, omelette with rice, and pork and chicken congee.

However, the price of these fast-food dishes can be up to Bt5 higher per dish if the outlets are in food courts of modern retailers, markets, offices, fuel stations, bus terminals and train stations.

Moreover, the ministry will not control the price of the foods at restaurants, or in tourist spots.

To help reduce the operating costs of food traders, Yanyong said the ministry would also ask modern retail operators to reduce their surcharge on each vendor’s income by 10 per cent.

According to an Internal Trade Department report, modern traders get between 27 and 35 per cent of the income generated by food traders operating on their premises.