A Thai rubber intervention scheme to shore up prices is expected to start in mid-February after several legislative steps have been completed, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said on Tuesday. "The plan has already been approved by the cabinet.
However, we need to set up committees to oversee the scheme and that should take a few weeks to get through all the legislative process," Wit Pratuckjai, director general of the Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund (ORRAF), told Reuters. "In practice, the government should start buying rubber by mid-February." The Thai government approved last week a 15 billion baht ($481 million) budget to buy unsmoked sheet (USS3) from farmers at 120 baht per kg to prop up prices.