Govt in bid to forestall fresh protests by rubber farmers
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Following protest threats, the government will instruct provincial governors from southern provinces to help farmers affected by the plummeting price of rubber, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday.
One Surat Thani group of farmers has agreed to a Bt90 per kilo price for ribbed smoked rubber sheets – calling off a protest and cancelling a September 10 rally to burn symbolic coffins.
Another group insisted on Bt120 per kilo for its rubber and will join Nakhon Si Thammarat farmers in a major protest on September 14.
This prompted the Surat Thani governor to order a coordination centre dealing with the rubber price issue in Phun Phin district to remain.
Yingluck said the government would follow the four-point agreement which Deputy PM and Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong had reached with rubber farmers. She walked away when asked if the government could meet the demands within seven days.
Songkhla police chief Pol Maj-General Suwit Chernsiri said so far no rubber farmers had planned to block the immigration checkpoints in Sadao district.
If they did attempt to do so, they would be prevented from getting there, he said.
Songkhla Governor Krissada Bunrat said he was confident he could dissuade the farmers not to create economic damage to the province, which earns mostly from exports and tourism.
Meanwhile, Deputy PM Niwatthumrong Boonsongpaisan said China has agreed to buy Thai agricultural produce including 1.2 million tonnes of rice, 300,000 tonnes tapioca and 200,000 tonnes of rubber.
The deal would be signed this month. China is also interested in setting up factories to process rubber and tapioca, including palm oil, he said.
Niwatthumrong said he could not tell if the rubber price would rise to Bt100 per kg. “The fact that we are exporting a large amount of rubber and with fewer inventories the price should be higher. But it would depend very much on the world price,” he said.
