ID :
162758
Mon, 02/21/2011 - 12:57
Auther :

Palm oil shortage prevails in Thailand

BANGKOK, Feb 21 (TNA) - The problem of palm oil shortage still prevails in Thailand. People in provinces across the country must form long queues early this morning to buy palm oil.

Local residents made long queues beside the provincial hall of Phayao province in northern Thailand before 8am Monday. Internal trade officials bring 9,600 bottles of palm oil to the province for local buyers every week. The palm oil supply in the northern province for this month started today so crowds turned up to buy it.

In Nakhon Sawan province, some traders sell other kinds of oil instead of palm oil but they are expensive. For example, sunflower oil is retailed at 85 baht per liter and corn oil at 95 baht per bottle.

In the northeastern Buri Ram province, insufficient and expensive palm oil causes retailers to limit its sale at three bottles per buyer. This affects food vendors as each of them needs 5-6 kilograms of oil a day. They must have their family members and employees stand in queue to buy as much as palm oil as possible or change the types of foods in case that they run out of oil.

Thai Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai said that she would propose two solutions to the meeting of the cabinet and the Palm Board Tuesday (Feb 22) to solve palm oil shortage. Those are to liberalise palm oil import and prohibit its export for three months. (TNA)

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