PM: Situation will improve after rains

As assigned by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, economic ministers will today survey prices of goods at farms and markets in Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom, Ratchaburi and Chon Buri, Acting Government Spokesman Anusorn Iamsa-ard said yesterday.
Among the products they will survey are meat, eggs, vegetables and student uniforms, so as to address the public’s worries, he said.
During the by-election campaign in Chiang Mai yesterday, Yingluck told reporters that the probe into the reported high prices of goods showed that prices were stable and she believed that the coming rainy season would help reduce the prices of farm goods.
Arguing that vegetable prices at many places were not high and fruits had become cheaper, especially from the “upstream” (farm price), Yingluck said she had instructed the commerce minister to keep goods prices at “mid-stream”, which includes transport, rental fees and profits, and “lower-stream” – the retail price – to be lowered according to the market mechanism.
Commenting about the reportedly high price of eggs, Yingluck said the price of mid-sized eggs had actually decreased nationwide as the supply was far greater than consumption hence the government had implemented egg-processing measures before studying why there was an imbalance in demand and supply.
She said she had instructed the Agriculture Minister and Commerce Minister to find ways to distribute goods, including eggs and vegetables, during the overwhelming and shortage periods by keeping in mind the goal of ensuring farm produce prices that would keep farmers afloat.
Meanwhile Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom spoke on the PM’s weekly TV programme about the government approach to enforce price control measures. He said, the government would expand from five days to two months the low-cost consumer products shops project. Boonsong said the ministry had sought and received cooperation from many business operators to keep goods prices under control for four months, especially commodity goods. The ministry will discuss this with business operators this week. He said that after four months, while some product prices could rise, the price of some goods such as chicken meat and eggs should be lower.
However, the rising price of energy made the situation difficult for the Energy Ministry. It would keep household energy price down for three months, to help lessen the people’s burden.
He also admitted that the price of vegetables had increased because the drought season had led to shortage in output.
Boonsong confided that by this year’s end, goods prices would be stable, lower and return to normal.
The ministry would also add 10 kinds of ready-to-eat foods to the government list of goods with controlled prices. The ministry would check the food vendors’ pricing regularly. He said the central committee on goods and services prices had set up a sub-panel to work on details of the plan and punishments, which would be tabled during the Cabinet meeting this week. If the situation was back to normal, the ministry, vendors and consumers would discuss taking the meal out of the list, he added.
Saying the low-cost consumer products shops project was attended by some 6,000 shops nationwide, he said 600 of them were in Bangkok and the ministry aimed to have a total of 1,000 such shops in Bangkok this month.
Meanwhile, the price of cooked meal in Phitsanulok was at least Bt20 per pack and most vendors sold at Bt25-Bt30 per pack as they claimed the cost of ingredients, especially vegetables and meat had gone up.
Nakhon Ratchasima Pig Farmers’ Club president Worapoj Sajjawattana said the province’s pig farmers had suffered losses hence 20-30 per cent had suspended their activities as they could not raise the price of pork to match the market situation because pork was in the government list of goods with controlled prices. He lamented this had happened while pig-raising costs had risen, including feeds, vitamins and transport fee.
He said pig farmers had to sell at Bt50-Bt52 per kilogram while pork in the market sold at Bt120-Bt130 per kilogram. He said this was not fair and farmers’ price should be Bt100-Bt110 per kilogram. He said if the government wanted to control the price of goods, they should control raw material prices such as animal feeds, corms and tapioca. As Nakhon Ratchasima consumed 3,000 pigs per day, this meant the pig farmers suffered a loss of Bt3 million per day or Bt1.08 billion per year, he added. Thai people ate about 15 kilograms of pork per person per year, he added.