BANGKOK: Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Sunday told Thais to put up with soaring rice prices because poor farmers in the kingdom were benefiting from the record highs.

"If you sacrifice and pay more for rice – a bit more, not much more – it will benefit farmers," he said during his weekly address to the nation.

The benchmark Thai variety, Pathumthani fragrant rice, was priced on April 9 at 956 dollars per tonne for export, up about 50 percent from a month earlier, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said in its price survey.

International demand for Thai rice has soared after other top exporters Vietnam and India imposed limits on exports to ensure domestic supply.

This has pushed up domestic rice costs in Thailand, which have soared in line with the export price.

Samak said the government understood that rising food and fuel costs were taking their toll on Thai families, and reassured people that the government was looking into ways of boosting incomes. He did not elaborate.

Poor farmers in Thailand say they are not all benefiting from the record prices. Few can afford storage so they sell their rice as soon as it is harvested, while the rising cost of fuel is also a problem.

Samak has previously urged the public and producers not to hoard rice, promising there would be enough for everyone in Thailand, where the revered grain is eaten three times a day and is farmed by 3.6 million families.

Samak heads the People Power Party, which swept to power in elections in December largely because of the backing of the rural poor in Thailand's northeastern region.


- AFP/so