Stores employ 3-bottle limit to prevent palm cooking oil hoarding
Several discount stores and supermarkets have enforced a 3-bottle limit on palm cooking oil purchases to prevent hoarding, a news source revealed on Thursday.
“The limit was announced after food merchants, owners of restaurants and grocery stores and the general public have been buying palm cooking oil in bulk amid the rising price of crude palm,” the source said.
“Food merchants fear that if the price goes up any higher they will lose their profit margin, while grocery stores aim to earn big profits in case of a price hike or product shortage,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Department of Internal Trade asked manufactures and distributors of bottled palm cooking oil to cap 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. This has resulted in the crude palm oil price increasing to Bt39 per kilogramme, in turn raising the price of bottled palm cooking oil to Bt46-Bt48 per litre.
“People have been complaining that some resellers, especially those who participate in the government’s ‘Let’s Go Halves’ co-payment shopping campaign, have raised the price of palm cooking oil to Bt50-Bt55 per litre,” the source added.
The department said the changing weather is one of the factors responsible for the rising crude palm price. It estimated that the oil palm price should stabilise around the end of March, when the market will see more crude palm.