• 
• 

Published on November 24, 2007

The Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand (Afet) said in a statement that its board of directors had approved the resignation of Napaporn, who cited health problems, while executive vice president Nitus Patrayotin was appointed acting president.

Napaporn will continue as an adviser due to her "knowledge, capability

and expertise in the agricultural futures market", Afet said. She was quoted in the statement as saying that over the past three years, since August 20, 2004, the agriculture futures market has been much talked about.

Now, Afet is much wider known and trading has picked up significantly, while Afet's future prices for rubber have become a

reference for both local and overseas markets.

She believes Afet will continue to be successful in the near future and she is willing to help the market further.

The Internal Trade Department has reportedly ordered Afet to explain how it will achieve its five-year business plan after winning a Bt110-million budget for this fiscal year.

The move follows a sharp reduction in the number of contracts traded.

A source from the Agriculture Futures Trading Commission said the market - which  once hit a daily-transaction peak of 1,000 contracts - now deals in only about 100 contracts a day.

The slack business has forced at least eight of 17 registered brokerages to exit the market.

Napaporn recently said the current low trading activity was due mainly to the US sub-prime lending crisis, which has also

sent daily trading in the Tokyo Commodity Market down from 40,000 contracts to just 10,000.

The Nation