The real cost of Thailand scrapping its sugar subsidy program
Thailand is ending its sugar subsidy programme after complaints that it dragged down global sugar prices. But both rural farmers and the ruling junta could suffer from the decision. The Thai government has announced that it will end its programme subsidising its sugar industry nearly a year after Brazil said that the programme dragged down global sugar price. The Southeast Asian nation will stop its subsidy on sugar production and drop domestic control of consumer prices for sugar by the end of this year. “Our new policy will be to let the price of sugar match that of the global markets, whereas before it was under the control of the Ministry of Agriculture,” Buntin Kotesiri, administrative director at Thailand’s Sugar and Cane Producing Board, told Reuters. “We expect these changes to come into effect at the end of the year during harvesting season.”
