After threatening to block southern Thailand’s highways in protest of declining shrimp prices, Thai shrimp farmers welcomed news this week that the government devised a plan to halt the freefall.
Initially, the government offered to provide THB 1.4 billion (USD 41.1 million, EUR 29.5 million) in soft loans, but shrimp farmers rejected the proposal. Instead, the farmers requested a guaranteed purchase of shrimp by the government to ensure that prices level off.
In response, the Thai Farmers Assistance Policy Committee has established a shrimp mortgage plan whereby 10,000 metric tons of vannamei shrimp will be bought and held in storage for two months.
The plan will be executed by the Public Warehouse Organization from 15 July to 30 September. Under the new scheme, shrimp farmers will have two months to redeem their mortgaged product at THB 155 (USD 4.55, EUR 3.27) per 50 shrimp. The price adjusts according to the number of shrimp, with the lowest price set at THB 100 (USD 2.94, EUR 2.11) per 100 shrimp.
Thailand is expected to produce 400,000 metric tons of farmed shrimp this year, which would be down from 464,000 metric tons in 2008. The global economic downturn is largely to blame for the shrimp surplus and prices dropping.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu, who also chairs the Farmers Assistance Policy Committee, said the government planned to allocate THB 1.2 billion (USD 35.2 million, EUR 25.3 million) for the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-Operatives to purchase an additional 30,000 metric tons of shrimp from farmers.
