Pineapple farmers to block Phetchakasem Road Friday

[PeteC]

I don't know if this location is close to Hua Hin or not? Anyway, a heads up for tomorrow. I guess if it runs into the weekend there could be some backup problems. Pete

Pineapple farmers to block Phetchakasem Road Friday
March 28, 2012 4:54 pm

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakin ... 78924.html

Pineapple farmers would hold a full road blockage on Phetchakasem Highway in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Muang district Friday until the government agreed to allocate Bt800 million to buy excessive pineapples at Bt4 per kilogram.

As the pineapple buying shops and canned pineapple factories would indefinitely stop buying pineapples from farmers from Thursday onwards, the 7,800 pineapple farmers in Prachuap Khiri Khan, which produced some 100,000 tons provincewide, would be affected.

Thai pineapple farmers' association president and Prachuap Khiri Khan pineapple farmers' group head, Surat Munitarawong, said the pineapple farmers in Prachuap Khiri Khan would gather with those from Uthai Thani, Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi and Phetchaburi to block the four lanes of Phetchakasem Highway at Ban Nong Hin Intersection in Tambon Khlong Wan.

[Takiap]

Oh dear, here we go again - red and yellow shirts out, and the pineapple brigade in. Bring in the troops.

Could someone please explain to me why the government is now expected to buy surplus pineapples? I might be wrong, but I don't recall the government forcing anyone to grow pineapples, or any other fruit for that matter.


Let's see............pineapples are a really easy crop to grow. Once planted, they require little, if any care at all. So, we work for a few days to get our pineapples planted, and then we can chill for the rest of the year. So what if there is no market for them - we will just sell them to the government.

[brianks]

This is what happens with Top Down governance and the fickle government bailing out its friends and ignoring others. Government should not be in the subsidy business at all. Oh, my but what would happen if fuel tax was fairly spread over all fuels? LPG would triple plus more, CNG would go up, Diesel would go up and Gasohol would go up while us who pay full sub on Regular Gas would remain the same.

When the government stops pandering to various groups and forces people to take responsibility for their own actions, this stuff will stop. FAT CHANCE!

[Takiap]

Well I'm not really a business minded person, but common sense is quite often enough to keep you out of trouble. If the price of pineapples is too low, why farm pineapples? I certainly wouldn't. My extended family up in Isaan has stopped growing sticky rice because they say it's not worth their while, and as far as I know, they now only grown enough of to meet their own needs. They do the same with regular rice as well. Now, if they could figure it out, why can't pineapple farmers figure it out.


I'm not having a go at farmers, but it seems that wherever you go, farmers are complaining. It's the same in the UK, and yet they are all driving the latest new cars and etc. If farming is so hard and so bad, just stop farming.


Next we'll have property developers asking the government to buy all their excess properties


I do feel for the farmers btw.

[hhfarang]

Maybe the pineapple farmers consider themselves "to big to fail" and need a U.S.A. or European style bailout...

[dtaai-maai]

Don't western governments provide huge subsidies for various industries, but particularly agricultural sectors? Don't I recall vast European mountains of oversupplied commodities such as butter and grain? That doesn't make it right, of course, but it does make it a bit hypocritical of us to get snotty about the pineapple farmers.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a system of European Union agricultural subsidies and programmes. It represented 47% of the EU's budget, €50 billion in 2006.[1]

The CAP combines a direct subsidy payment for crops and land which may be cultivated with price support mechanisms, including guaranteed minimum prices, import tariffs and quotas on certain goods from outside the EU.

[Takiap]

Yes HHF, it's just as ridiculous when the big corporations start begging for help, and then when they get it, the big boys use most of the money to award themselves bonuses for failing at their jobs.

Mr noodle seller at the end of the road doesn't get enough customers, he/she has to pack up shop and nobody gives a damn. When a bank robs and steals from millions of customers, and then still fails, they take money from the people who were stolen from, and use it to help the crooks.



And here I was thinking that one has to take responsibility for one's actions. Not anymore it seems.

[Takiap]

Don't western governments provide huge subsidies for various industries, but particularly agricultural sectors? Don't I recall vast European mountains of oversupplied commodities such as butter and grain? That doesn't make it right, of course, but it does make it a bit hypocritical of us to get snotty about the pineapple farmers.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a system of European Union agricultural subsidies and programmes. It represented 47% of the EU's budget, €50 billion in 2006.[1]

The CAP combines a direct subsidy payment for crops and land which may be cultivated with price support mechanisms, including guaranteed minimum prices, import tariffs and quotas on certain goods from outside the EU.

I agree with you 100%. The west is far worse than what we see here. What i'm saying is, I think the system sucks. If someone, irrespective of race, culture or creed, is stupid enough to farm something for which there is no market, or not enough demand, then that's their problem. Maybe when they start to really feel the pinch, they'll wake up and realize their coffee is getting cold.


As you say, farmers in some European countries are being paid to farm produce that will never make it to supermarket shelves. In fact, in the UK, for example, some farmers even get paid not to farm.


What a bloody crazy setup.

[usual suspect]

Carrying on Takiap's little quip there about farmers being paid Not to 'farm'...I worked for a large Agricultural Contractor in the UK for many years & many of the big fields I harvested had around their perimeter a 6 metre 'Beetle-Bank'..and the lardy-daa farmers told us to keep our big machines OFF that border of grass because with the government pay-outs THAT 6m strip earnt them MORE than the rest of the whole field of wheat... it's a crazy world..

[barry720]

Do you know where on Phetchaksem Road?

[PeteC]

Getting back to exact location, Google maps indicates that Tambon Khlong Wan is about mid-way between Hua Hin and Bang Saphan, just east of the northern border of Lenya National Park. Pete

[buksida]

Pineapple growers blocking the Petchkasem highway at Ban Aou Noi in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Muang district early Friday afternoon reopened the highway to traffic after their demand was met, reports said.

About 12.30pm, Prachuap Khiri Khan governor Veera Sriwattanatrakul went to meet the farmers and told them that an urgent meeting of the National Pineapple Committee had agreed to allocate an 800 million baht budget to buy 200,000 tonnes of surplus pineapples from the market, as they demanded.

The farmers welcomed the report and peacefully dispersed.

Earlier this morning, the pineapple farmers dumped tonnes of pineapples on the inbound lanes to Bangkok of the Petchkasem highway between the 314th and 315th kilometre markers in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Muang district, blocking the main route between Bangkok and the south.

The number of the pineapple growers had increased from 1,500 in the morning to more than 3,000 by the time the protest ended.

The road was blocked at Ban Auo Noi in tambon Auo Noi of Prachup Khiri Khan’s Muang district, blocking southbound traffic to 14 southern provinces.

The farmers are unhappy with the current wholesale price of three baht a kilogramme and believe reducing supply will drive up the price.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... s-disperse

[Pleng]

I hate to ask this but...

where does all the surplus end up?

[PeteC]

Pineapple growers await the results of talks about the falling price of their fruit after they dumped tonnes of pineapples on the Phetkasem Highway in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Muang district yesterday. The group, numbering about 4,000, dispersed in the afternoon after the government met their demand that it buy the pineapples at 4 baht a kilogramme. CHAIWAT SATYAEM

More.......http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/2 ... ck-highway

[Takiap]

I hope they cleaned up their mess before they left. Pity this wasn't closer to Hua-Hin - I could have stocked up..