July 2, 2026
 

Thailand's parliamentary Commerce and Intellectual Property Committee has submitted four policy recommendations to the Commerce Minister calling for a temporary minimum price floor for domestic feed corn, stricter enforcement against mills delaying purchases, and an urgent renewal of the corn pricing regulation before the current measure expires in July.

The committee convened on 29 June following the National Corn Policy Committee's decision to extend the AFTA feed corn import window from 30 June to 31 August 2026, a move that triggered widespread purchase delays and volume restrictions by feed manufacturers monitoring the supply outlook before committing to domestic corn. Committee chairman Samprit Taenthap, an MP for Chaiyaphum from the Bhumjaithai Party, said the import extension had created a bottleneck in farm-level transactions and was damaging farmer cash flow.

The first recommendation calls for the Commerce Ministry to set a temporary minimum selling price for domestic corn, calculated against the average production cost over the preceding three months, to protect farmers during the transition to a new pricing structure. Feed mills would be required to report actual purchase volumes and prices, and officials would be deployed to investigate and penalise operators found to be refusing or delaying purchases without justification.

The second key proposal urges the Commerce Ministry to issue a new corn purchasing price regulation before the existing measure lapses in July, to prevent a policy gap coinciding with the arrival of the new season's harvest - a period when both imported AFTA corn and domestic production could hit the market simultaneously and depress farmgate returns.

The committee's longer-term fourth proposal recommends coordinating with the Agriculture Ministry to incentivise farmers to shift from second-season rice cultivation to feed corn planting, with the goal of reducing structural import dependence.

The committee acknowledged that domestic feed corn planted area this year has fallen sharply due to adverse weather conditions, which it said justified the August extension within the framework of existing AFTA practice. It said it would continue monitoring harvest timing and would recommend policy adjustments if the new crop enters the market earlier than expected.