Agriculture ministry terminates rubber trade contract with Chinese company

BANGKOK, Dec 9 (TNA) -- The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives terminated the contract of its Rubber Authority of Thailand to sell Para rubber to Hainan Rubber Industry Group on Dec 4 because the group could not buy it as agreed in their deal signed in November last year. Agriculture minister Chatchai Sarikulya said that Hainan Rubber Industry Group had been contracted to buy 210,000 tons of rubber by September this year but it had actually bought only 30,000 tons as of the deadline. For the contractual failure, the Rubber Authority of Thailand would sue the company for about 80 million baht in compensation for lost sale opportunities which resulted in the local Para rubber price falling to 41 baht per kilogram, the minister said. The Rubber Authority of Thailand had 365,000 tons of Para rubber in its stockpiles and would have to release them as soon as possible, Gen Chatchai said. The minister said that Hainan Rubber Industry Group would be blacklisted and his ministry would verify its claim that corruption among officials had delayed the delivery of rubber. (TNA)