• 
• 

Producers of cattle- and shrimp-feed meal will be the first allowed to raise retail prices, as the cost of raw materials has gone up sharply in the past year.

The government has frozen animal-feed prices since 2004, and no increase in retail meat prices has been allowed despite the higher cost of animal-feed raw materials of between 38 and 118 per cent from 2003.

The price of powdered fish grew from Bt20.30 per kilogram last year to Bt28.43 in May. The price of maize increased from Bt7.47 to Bt9.23 per kg, while soybean meal went up from Bt10.30 to Bt16.50.

Other feed-meal raw-material costs have also risen, including tapioca chips by 88 per cent, rice bran (91 per cent) and broken rice (118 per cent).

The association wants the government to allow price increases of 10 to 20 per cent.

Yanyong Phuangrach, director-general of the Internal Trade Department, said the department would soon need to gradually allow feed-meal price increases as manufacturers have shown that their raw-material costs rose significantly in the past year.

"These products face significant cost increases. The ministry will allow retail prices to increase soon," Yangyong said, adding that new prices would gradual take effect, giving consumers and animal feeders time to adjust.

The outcome was reached after the department last week met with the Thai Feed Mill Association and seven leading animal feed-meal manufacturers - CP Foods, Betagro, Krungthep Feed Products, Top Feed Meal, Laemthong Corp, Feed Central and Lee Pattana - to discuss price increases based on fairness for producers and consumers.

The association next week will propose animal feed-meal products requiring price rises, while they must also propose a list of products that can maintain retail prices in order to help consumers. If the price of animal feed rises, prices of meat such as shrimp, pork and beef could increase as feed meal is an important part of the production cost.