Thailand has suspended buying natural rubber at a government center in the Nakae district on concerns that traders maybe posing as farmers to take advantage of a price scheme, local news reports said Saturday.
Damrongsak Phrammanee, head of the center, said rubber traders in northeastern Nakhon Phanom province were posing as farmers and selling natural rubber at prices set for local farmers.
Traders were taking advantage of a scheme put in place by the government in January this year to boost domestic natural rubber prices, by buying natural rubber at lower prices from cash-strapped farmers and selling to the government at higher prices guaranteed by the plan, he said.
In January, the Baht 15 billion ($483 million) plan to boost prices to about Baht 120/kg was implemented.
On July 17, the Thai government approved prices at which to buy natural rubber from farmers. For USS, or unsmoked sheet, the price was set at Baht 100/kg, and for RSS (Ribbed Smoked Sheet) grades, at Baht 104/kg.
But the process to pay farmers under the plan has been slow, and traders were taking advantage of that, Damrongsak said.
Thailand is the world's biggest producer of natural rubber.
