October 16, 2009

Thailand's Commerce Ministry will impose an animal feed import policy next year after the feed mill industry threatened to sue the Ministry for delaying soymeal imports which hampered business planning.

 

The Ministry will implement an animal feed policy next year for soymeal, field corn and fishmeal, said Yanyong Puangrach, acting permanent secretary for commerce.

 

The policy would be tabled at the Food Policy Commission meeting, and would be passed to the Cabinet later for implementation.

 

Under the policy, importers would be allowed to import an unlimited amount of soymeal at two percent tariff rate. But the importers would have to purchase the same amount of domestic soy in order to avoid any negative impact on local farmers.

 

Field corns can only be imported between March 1 to June 30, 2010, by the Public Warehouse Organisation. The organisation must conform to Ministry standard specification, whereby the fishmeal could be imported at unlimited quantity but must have at least 60 percent of protein content.