BANGKOK, 14 July 2011 – Tesco Lotus, a hypermarket chain in Thailand, affirms that retail prices of many products, particularly rice, sold in its superstores will not be increased for the time being in a bid to help reduce high living cost of customers.
According to Tesco Lotus Chief Marketing Officer Kurt Kamp, the company has been negotiating with product suppliers continuously in an effort to pin retail prices. Rice suppliers have guaranteed that rice bags will be available at the current price until October 2011 although some millers have stopped trading rice in a wait-and-see attitude toward the new government’s policy on rice mortgaging scheme.
Some millers have suspended rice trade temporarily due to the expected higher price in the market.
According to a survey, market prices of both paddy and jasmine rice have been moving up while the Thai Rice Packers Association expects an increase of 60% in paddy price by the end of this year.
Mr Kurt admitted that the plan of the new government to raise minimum wage to 300 baht per day will certainly contribute to higher operating costs of entrepreneurs; however, Tesco Lotus is ready to follow the policy and will take care of its retail prices in order to help customers at the same time.
The marketing officer of the UK-based hypermarket also hoped that the new government will be able to boost confidence of customers in a bid to bolster their spending.
