Thai officials claim that the price of bagged rice won’t increase

In a meeting yesterday, the chairman of the Thai Rice Packers Association announced that the group has worked with the Internal Trade Department to freeze retail pricing. This information follows last week’s announcement by Thai authorities that the country would freeze the prices of 46 products. The commodities are divided into nine categories, including paper and paper products, goods for transportation, goods for agriculture, goods derived from petroleum, pharmaceuticals, building supplies, “essential” farm goods, consumer goods, and food. The commodities include, among others, tires for bicycles and cars, motorcycles and trucks, water pumps, fertilizer, poultry, chicken eggs, and durian.


Director-General of the Internal Trade Department Wattanasak Sur-iam says the division will keep a careful eye on product pricing changes. He has asked customers to call the department’s hotline 1569 if they believe that a merchant has taken advantage of them. The retail price of bagged rice won’t increase, according to Thailand’s commerce ministry, despite continuous global price rise.

In order to prevent merchants from raising the prices of restricted products, Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit claimed that he had directed governors and commerce officials in every province to monitor market prices. According to Jurin, the prices of the 46 products would remain fixed until the end of June of the following year by Thailand’s Central Committee on the Price of Goods and Services. However, the Commerce Ministry has warned that some retailers would cut back on promotional offers.