MARKET DEVELOPMENT
Probe Ordered About A Plan to Purchase Another Lot of 100,000 Tonnes of Raw Palm Oil
Probe Ordered About A Plan to Purchase Another Lot of 100,000 Tonnes of Raw Palm Oil
05/10/2015 (ThaiVisa News) - Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak has ordered an investigation to find out if a panel tasked with helping farmers has agreed in principle to let the Public Warehouse Organisation to purchase another lot of 100,000 tonnes of raw palm oil from oil extracting firms at an estimated 2.89 billion baht.
Mr Ubonsak Bualuang-ngarm, chairman the central farming groups committee and a panel of the panel said he doubted the panel had made such decision to let the PWO to buy the raw palm oil at a meeting of July 15 as reported in the meeting’s minute by the Internal Trade Department in its capacity as the secretary of the panel.
He claimed that the panel didn’t make a decision and the chair of the meeting, then Deputy Prime Minister M.R. Pridiyathorn Devakula, instructed the PWO to make an assessment of the palm oil situation with a report of the PWO’s performance for submission to the panel.
Also, Pridiyathorn instructed the PWO to first fulfill its job to purchase the first lot of 100,000 tonnes of raw palm oil which was still 80,000 tonnes short, said Mr Ubonsak.
He explained that the panel then objected to the purchase of the second lot of raw palm oil because it was estimated that there only 184,000 tonnes available when the first purchase was made.
Out of a sudden, it was reported that there were about 400,000 tonnes of raw palm oil available locally when there was a proposal for the purchase of the second lot, said Mr Ubonsak, adding that he suspected the additional palm oil might have been smuggled into the country from Malaysia by unscrupulous traders who expected to make a hefty profit by selling them to the PWO because the palm oil price in Malaysia is much cheaper.
Mr Ubonsak Bualuang-ngarm, chairman the central farming groups committee and a panel of the panel said he doubted the panel had made such decision to let the PWO to buy the raw palm oil at a meeting of July 15 as reported in the meeting’s minute by the Internal Trade Department in its capacity as the secretary of the panel.
He claimed that the panel didn’t make a decision and the chair of the meeting, then Deputy Prime Minister M.R. Pridiyathorn Devakula, instructed the PWO to make an assessment of the palm oil situation with a report of the PWO’s performance for submission to the panel.
Also, Pridiyathorn instructed the PWO to first fulfill its job to purchase the first lot of 100,000 tonnes of raw palm oil which was still 80,000 tonnes short, said Mr Ubonsak.
He explained that the panel then objected to the purchase of the second lot of raw palm oil because it was estimated that there only 184,000 tonnes available when the first purchase was made.
Out of a sudden, it was reported that there were about 400,000 tonnes of raw palm oil available locally when there was a proposal for the purchase of the second lot, said Mr Ubonsak, adding that he suspected the additional palm oil might have been smuggled into the country from Malaysia by unscrupulous traders who expected to make a hefty profit by selling them to the PWO because the palm oil price in Malaysia is much cheaper.