CORN MORTGAGE
PHUSADEE ARUNMAS
The farm policy and assistance measures committee has asked the cabinet to decide on a mortgage scheme for corn for fear of making the kind of mistake that plagued the Thaksin administration and led to legal action against former committee members. After a five-hour meeting yesterday, the committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Olarn Chaipravat, presented two options for the cabinet.
First, the government would implement a corn mortgage scheme based on a price of 8.20 baht a kg. The second scheme would set the price at 8.50 baht a kg. The proposed scheme would cover the last three months of this year and target 500,000 tonnes of grain, or around 30% of total corn output of 1.6 million tonnes.
A committee source said it was unusual to present options to the cabinet. Previously, the committee would find a solution to a problem and present it to the cabinet for acknowledgment.
But the committee was wary of making a decision by itself after the last committee, chaired by former deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak, was accused by the now-defunct Assets Scrutiny Committee of corruption over a 1.44 billion baht para rubber saplings project by the Thaksin administration.
The source said Mr Olarn left the meeting early and passed the chair to Agriculture Minister Somsak Prissananantakul, who then also left and passed the chair to Deputy Commerce Minister Banyin Tangpakorn.
Mr Banyin said the mortgage price options proposed to the cabinet are based on average commodity corn prices in the Chicago market plus a 20% margin and operating costs.
He said the average production cost for corn growers is 5.83 baht a kg.
The current market price of corn is slightly above 4 baht a kg, which has brought protests from corn farmers in several provinces in the North.
On Monday, corn growers in Lampang blocked a road in Wang Nua district with more than 100 e-tan farm trucks in protest against the government for not doing enough to shore up the price of corn.
The frustrated corn growers demanded the government fix the price of corn at 7 baht a kilo because the current price of maize for livestock feed was 4.50 baht a kg. They also set up 15 tents in the middle of the road and said the protest won't be called off until the government responds to their demand.
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