Rubber Association sacrificing farmers to big business
The Rubber Association of Thailand was created to increase the price of rubber and improve the lives of rubber farmers. Not only has it not succeeded, but it now appears to have embraced a mission of improving the lot of Chinese rubber buyers.
The RAOT recently announced it will grant Alibaba the right to hold e-commerce auctions for all forms of Thai rubber. This will give Chinese buyers the tools to collude to create advantageous rubber prices by collectively manipulating demand, and it will also transfer an opportunity for Thai growers and their representatives to set up competitive online sites from which to control supply side pricing to the Chinese!
One may also wonder why the RAOT has not helped create a government mandate that all new road construction incorporate rubber in the pavement, when tests of this method have produced excellent results in Chantaburi.
The government seems to have forgotten everyone except its wealthy friends. The rest get a handout on occasion and a policy stab in the back with notable regularity.
Michael Setter
Chon Buri
