Thailand’s central committee on prices of goods and services agreed today (Wednesday) to propose to the cabinet that chickens and chicken meat be added to the list of price controlled goods, in a bid to pre-empt traders and vendors jacking up their prices, said Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit. 

The committee has also mandated that chicken farmers, who raise more than 100,000 birds, and slaughter houses, which produce more than 4,000 slaughtered birds a day, report their chicken stocks and production costs on a monthly basis to the authorities.

Moreover, the 55 animal feed producers nationwide are now required to notify authorities of their production costs, selling prices, production quantities and inventories. They are not allowed to increase their prices without prior consent from the Internal Trade Department.

The minister said that the committee’s decision to place chicken and chicken meat on the list of controlled goods will be submitted to the cabinet next week for finalization.

He claimed that chicken farmers and traders have been cooperative with the Commerce Ministry in its effort to control the prices of both live chickens and chicken meat, to ensure fairness for consumers.

The cabinet yesterday also approved the commerce ministry’s proposal to subsidise some goods such as chicken meat and eggs amid the current price crisis at selected outlets nationwide using 1.4 billion baht from the Central Fund.