THAILAND’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, together with several private groups are setting up a BHT210 million rubber-price stability fund on the Agriculture Futures Exchange of Thailand (AFET), said Deputy Minister Yuttapong Charasathien, with an objective to buy rubber via AFET.
The Ministry anticipates that future price of rubber for delivery next January is BHT78 per kilogramme, which is unusually low, compared with the prevailing price of BHT85 per kilo.
The seven alliance members, comprising of the Rubber Estate Organisation, the International Rubber Conference Organisation, Thai Hua Rubber, Sri Trang Agro-Industry, Thai Rubber Latex Corporation (Thailand), Southland Rubber Co and Von Bundit Rubber Co., will each contribute BHT30 million for a total contribution of BHT210 million to set up this rubber price stability fund that will support an average of 300-400 rubber-sale contracts per day in bid to encourage market liquidity and attract more investors when compared with the average trading volume of 300 contracts a day, as well as boost income for Thai rubber growers.
The fund can procure 50,000 tonnes of rubber, which reports say is enough to sustain rubber price.