Farmers call for sacking of rubber chief

A network of rubber planters and tappers is gathering 50,000 signatures to petition the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) to impeach the governor and board members of the Rubber Authority of Thailand (RAT), blamed for falling rubber prices.

Manas Boonpat, president of the SmallScale Rubber Planters and Rubber Tappers Association, said yesterday lawmakers need to scrutinise and impeach RAT governor Tiratch Suksaard and other board members.

Mr Tiratch was not available for comment yesterday. Earlier, he reportedly said he had been unfairly criticised. According to local reports, Mr Tiratch said that as the first governor of the RAT, he focused on creating a new market and using research and innovation to add value, and would not support “populism”.

The petition will also be lodged with Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chatchai Sarikulya and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha for their acknowledgment.

“The whole problem with rubber rests with the RAT board,” said Mr Manas. “The RAT board has allowed the situation to get to this.”

He said some board members complained their proposals had been eventually thrown out as they were only minorities on the board. “I would want to call on them to resign,” said Mr Manas.

According to Mr Manas, the central rubber market, overseen by RAT, only bought a small amount of rubber, leaving rubber institutes, community enterprises and farmer cooperatives to fall short of cash, and growers unable to receive money.

“With unsold rubber produce and dwindling prices, farmers’ capital investments are in trouble and they are strained for cash,” said Mr Manas. Some cooperatives needed to close rubber smoking plants, leaving small-scale rubber processing operators with no jobs, he noted.

Under these conditions, financial institutions have held back from extending lines of credit to rubber operators and some even called back their loans, he said.

According to Mr Manas, several rubber farmers cooperatives that sought loans from financial institutes and others have begun to collapse.

Those who signed their names in a bid to call for the impeachment of the RAT board members and governor include farmers, smallscale traders, whole-sellers as well as rubber organisations, he said.

Calls for signing the petition have spread throughout the country, he added.