Thai Rice Farmers Urge Stockpile Sales to Meet Payments
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Record reserves of rice accumulated by the Thai government under a state-buying program should be sold off to raise funds to make delayed payments to farmers, leaders from growers’ groups said as they stepped up protests.
The government must sell from the stockpile, said Ravee Rungruang, leader of a group from Ratchaburi province who took about 600 farmers to the Ministry of Commerce on the outskirts of Bangkok to put forward their demand. Some 3,000 farmers had gathered at the site and blocked a road, according to Prasit Booncheuy, president of the Thai Rice Farmers Association.