Coss Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Thailand is the world's third largest producer of palm oil, after Indonesia and Malaysia, and the sight of people standing in long queues to buy just one bottle of cooking palm oil is just simply ridiculous and amazing. I do not cook myself. So I do not have to face the frustrated housewives and maids who have to join the long queue at one of those modern super markets like Tesco Lotus or Tops Super Market each morning just to buy a one litre bottle of cooking oil. My mother-in-law does the cooking. So every day she assigns someone in the house to fetch one or two bottles of any brand of cooking palm oil (she cannot be too choosy these days) from a nearby Tesco Lotus outlet in Bang Sue. On a lucky day two bottles can be bought at the same time, because that means the maid will not have to rejoin the queue after having bought the first bottle. The mere sight of people having to form a long queue just to buy one bottle of palm cooking oil in a country that produced 18.7 million tonnes of palm oil in the 2009-2010 season is so ridiculous as to be unbelievable, if only it weren't true. The cooking palm oil shortage, which has been going on for weeks, surely qualifies as yet another example of “Amazing Thailandâ€. Although the acute shortage might be attributable to a number of factors, including a drop in the harvest because of drought and floods, a substantial portion of the oil was, in fact, diverted to the production of biodiesel, which is more profitable than cooking oil. Add to that the hoarding by some companies trying to force up the price, as claimed by the Department of Special Investigation. Officials from the Department of Special Investigation inspect a palm oil factory in Pathum Thani on Feb 21, 2011. (Photo by Post photographer) So it's clear a large part of the blame falls on the government and, in particular, the Commerce Ministry. The Commerce Ministry should have predicted the shortage and taken measures much earlier, had it bothered to closely monitor the palm oil situation both for biodiesel and for refining into cooking oil. Fixing the price of a one-litre bottle of cooking palm oil at 47 baht regardless of the increased price of palm oil and production costs is unrealistic and a distortion of the real cost. No producer will willingly produce cooking palm oil, or to distribute it, if they have to bear a loss. Yet, the government appears determined to carry on with its price fixing, even if the palm oil being imported to ease the shortage comes at a higher price. If that is the case, will there be any companies still willing to import the product and then sell it at a loss? Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai has demanded about one billion baht to subsidise the cost of imported cooking palm oil, so consumers will still be able to buy it at 47 baht a bottle. Capping the price with government subsidies seems to be the standard practice of the government in dealing with other essential commodities such as diesel and LPG, whose prices have been unrealistically fixed or distorted with huge subsidies. The government should allow the price of cooking palm oil, as well as many other products whose prices are unrealistically fixed, to be determined by the market, with the proper authorities observing from the sidelines to ensure fair competition and no price collusion among producers or traders. Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 So the mother-in-law goes through a liter of cooking oil EVERYDAY! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldFun Posted February 22, 2011 Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 yeah I'd rather eat at MCD than have her fried rices Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coss Posted February 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2011 Well she is cooking for three people Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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