A key group of Thai rubber farmers on Tuesday called off protests planned for this weekend after the Thai Cabinet agreed to double a subsidy aimed at helping them cope with weak prices.
Reuters
Rubber farmers sit on tires as they block a road during a protest in Surat Thani in Thailand on Sept. 3.
The protests – which began Aug 23. and ended Sept. 7 – disrupted the flow of goods, added time to commutes and upset the tourism industry, amounting to damages estimated at around $109 million.
Amnuay Yuttitham, leader of one faction of rubber farmers, said his members accepted the government’s subsidy.
“We decided to cancel the planned rally,” Mr. Amnuay said in a telephone interview a few hours after the Cabinet green-lighted the subsidy.
Rubber farmers held demonstrations in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, about 480 miles south of Bangkok. Angry farmers demanded that the government provide aid after the price of unsmoked rubber plunged. Some farmers blocked roads and railway tracks, causing major disruptions to transportation and logistics to the region.
The protests also spread to other sites, mostly in the country’s south where most rubber plantations are located. In one scuffle the farmers had with police last week, 11 police officers were injured and cars were damaged.
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal by the country’s national rubber policy committee to double the subsidy for rubber farmers. Each farmer will be paid 2,520 baht, or $78, per one rai, or slightly more than one-third of an acre. Farmers will be given the subsidy for areas up to 25 rai, or 10 acres, for the current rubber tapping season, which runs from September to March.
On Monday, after the news of recommended subsidy measures came out, a network of rubber farmer associations said they were satisfied. However, it was unclear then what other factions, including the one led by Mr. Amnuay that demanded a greater subsidy, would react. Previously, his faction had threatened to close roads, immigration offices and a port in the south.
“But if the rubber prices don’t improve by the end of March when the subsidy runs out, we may come out again to demand for help,” Mr. Amnuay said, adding that he would ask that the government drops any legal actions it plans to take on protesters who blocked roads and railways during the protests.
Global rubber prices have steadily declined due to low demand from China and other emerging markets. In Thailand, the world’s largest rubber-producing country, the price of raw rubber sheet plummeted by half since it peaked in February 2011.
This year, it is expected that natural rubber production will be 11.4 million tons, which is 200,000 tons more than projected consumption, according to the Rubber Economist Ltd, an industry consultancy firm. About 90% of Thailand’s natural rubber output goes overseas.
The demonstrations by rubber farmers have disrupted business logistics and tourism industry in Thailand’s south, assessments by related government agencies released Tuesday showed.
Over the course of the protests, eight south-bound trains service were suspended for 12 days, causing a loss of 36 million baht, or $1.1 million, in income from passengers and 2.5 million baht, or $77,800, from freight services, Transport Ministry reported.
Commuters using car and land transportation experienced average delays of 30 minutes to five hours. Transportation of goods was delayed, and in some cases, halted. The Transport Ministry said about 10,000 tons of rubber sheets destined for Malaysia were held up because of blocked roads, while some areas in the south reported a shortage of gas. The ministry projected that the damage from delay in logistics amounted to 3 billion baht, or $93.3 million, over the course of 10 days.
A survey of tourism operators in the five southern provinces by the Ministry of Tourism suggested that the protests caused them about 475 million baht, or $14.8 million, of damage.
Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong told reporters after the Cabinet meeting that he hoped rubber farmers understand that the government has done its best to help.
“We are helping rubber farmers as much as our budget allows,” Mr. Kittiratt said. “Whoever says the government is not helping enough is making a very mean accusation.”
