Cap bottled palm oil price, Commerce Ministry urges manufactures, distributors
The Commerce Ministry’s Department of Internal Trade has asked manufactures and distributors of bottled palm cooking oil to fix the price for as long as possible to alleviate the financial burden faced by consumers after the crude palm price jumped to Bt7.5 per kilogramme.
“We also urge consumers to use an alternative to palm oil, such as soybean oil, the price for which has not changed much, until the oil palm price stabilises, which we estimate will be around the end of March,” said department deputy director-general Watthanasak Sua-Iam.
The price of crude palm has been increasing steadily from Bt3-Bt3.5 in mid-2020 to Bt7 at the end of last year. This has resulted in the crude palm oil price jumping to Bt39 per kilogramme, in turn raising the price of bottled palm cooking oil to Bt46-Bt48 per litre.
The department had previously revoked price ceilings for palm and soybean cooking oils so these prices would reflect the true cost of production. The ceiling for palm oil had been set at Bt42 per litre and for soybean oil Bt55 per litre.