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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail More Yahoo! Services Account Options New User? Sign Up Sign In Help Yahoo! Search web search Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Weekend Edition Australia China India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Philippines Thailand Vietnam COMMENTARY: Thai PM could end up with egg on his face ANN - Friday, January 28 Send IM Story Print Bangkok (The Nation-Thailand/ANN) - What's this big fuss about selling eggs by the kilo in Thailand instead of sticking to the age-old practice of asking: "How much is an egg today?" Had it been introduced by the Thai prime minister himself, this could have been blown into a major political issue. For some reason, the price of a single chicken egg - duck eggs, strangely enough, were never mentioned in the same category - has been set as the benchmark for the performance of the country's chief executive in the economic field. It became a comparative yardstick when economists cited the price of Prem's egg against Chatichai's egg. Then came Chuan's egg, whose price-tag in the market was measured against his predecessor's - and, forget GDP growth rates and inflation figures - that's what decided the leader's popularity. Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, however, has gone on a roller-coaster ride over the price of an egg. When he first took over, chicken eggs were in over-supply and he was faced with the "crisis" of having to do everything possible to jack up the price of an egg. When the question of the egg price came up, you could be sure that other major political issues - be it tension over the yellow and red shirts or the heat over the Thai-Cambodian border confrontation - had to take a back seat. If the price of an egg doesn't come down on his watch, he and his party could lose the next election hands down. The past few months have, however, seen a U-turn on the egg front. Egg prices have been on the rise and complaints from consumers have been piling up - so much so that the issue could threaten the government's political stability if nothing is done to stem the rise in egg prices. It doesn't matter that prices of other commodities and consumer products have also been increasing. The egg price symbolises every measure of a government's competence. That's where Manote Chootabtim, president of the Chicken Farmers' Association, came in. He was asked by an inspector of the Commerce Ministry, Chutima Bunyaprapassorn, to offer advice on how to bring down production costs for chicken farmers. "I proposed cutting the prices of animal feed and power bills. On the marketing side, I proposed selling chicken eggs by the kilo instead of by piece, as one of the alternatives - not as a total solution," he says. He blames the perennial problems of chicken farmers on the middlemen who invariably put pressure on the farmers for the lowest possible price, so they can sell to consumers at the highest possible profit margin. The middleman buys in bulk, by the kilo, from farmers, but sells by the piece after grading the eggs into different categories and setting various prices according to quality. Manote explains: "Very few people realise that one egg usually weighs around 5 grammes more or less than the next one. It's a very small distinction. And the more grades the middleman puts on sale, the bigger the price gaps and the more money he makes per kilo." The egg grading standards are also set by the middlemen. Nobody is sure how fair and professional they are, Manote argues. Therefore, if consumers could choose to buy eggs either by the kilo or individually (as graded by the sellers), it could probably reduce the distortion in grading and pricing. But that doesn't mean buyers should be restricted to only one choice. But then bureaucracy stepped in to mess things up. For some reason, the authorities at the Internal Trade Department of the Commerce Ministry decided to make a mountain out of a molehill. Instead of opening up the choices for consumers, to stabilise the prices of eggs, they turned the whole market upside-down by compelling every egg-seller in the country to sell their produce only by the kilo. If the government isn't careful, this silly bureaucratic blunder could snowball into a political storm. A Dusit Poll says only 13.85 per cent of its respondents were in favour of the new kilo-based system, 66.29 per cent voiced their opposition, and 56.63 per cent suggested that it would have a negative impact on low-income people. Already, some academics have posed a very sensitive question: The new egg marketing system won't work. It's a very fragile solution: What if the eggs break in the weighing process? Who will pay for that? One doesn't need to consult an egghead to warn PM Abhisit that if he doesn't get officials at the Commerce Ministry to shape up, the egg price issue could become yet another political crisis. It could seriously affect his party's ability to get a good result in election later this year. Instead of a nice sunny side up egg for breakfast, the ruling Democrat Party may get rotten eggs thrown at them in the upcoming election campaign if this new plan isn't properly hatched. 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