1 million Thai rubber planters await Monday's direct sale

About 1 million rubber planters throughout Thailand are expected to put their produce for sale to government units on Monday, given a price of 1.25 U.S. dollars a kilogram.

Acting Rubber Authority of Thailand governor Chao Song-arvut confirmed on Saturday the Public Warehouse Organization, military units under command of the National Council for Peace and Order -- the official name of the ruling junta chaired by Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha, and his agency have planned to buy the 100,000-ton rubber directly from the registered planters in the southern, northern and northeastern regions of the country.

The government offered to buy the rubber for 1.25 U.S. dollars a kilo, though the planters earlier called for 1.66 U.S. dollars a kilo. The Thai government's latest plan to buy the rubber directly from the planters and without any dealers in between apparently followed chronic price slumps in the domestic market which nosedived to as low as 69 U.S. cents a kilo.

However, only a maximum of 150 kilos of rubber will be bought from each of the 1 million planters on Monday, Chao said.

Prayut has pushed for extensive uses of rubber such as in the making of tires, gloves and stadium grounds, among others, as well as the paving of road surfaces by mixing rubber with asphalt.

But only about 14,000 tons of the total 100,000 tons will be purchased for uses by varied government units, leaving the hefty balance to warehouses under care of the government, according to the premier.

He earlier commented that the Thai rubber has oversupplied the world market and insisted that the planters turn to alternative plants in bid to reduce rubber production which has amounted up to 4 million tons, some 3 million tons of which has been bound for export, in a year. Endit