Pig farmers, right, protesting outside the Silom Tower office of Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc yesterday confront another group of pig raisers who support the conglomerate. There was no violence and the groups eventually dispersed.

Somkid Rueangwilaisap, chairman of the Pig Farmers Cooperatives, said CPF always sells its pork products in local markets at prices one or two baht lower than those of the same products marketed by small-scale farmers.

Over the past six months, with the CPF's pricing strategy, small-scale farmers have lost collective revenue of seven billion baht, said Mr Somkid.

About 100 people who also claimed to be pig farmers gathered to support CPF in front of Silom Tower. There were no clashes between the two groups.

More than 100 police were on hand to monitor the rally.

CPF executives met with representatives of the protesting farmers around noon. They reached an agreement two hours later and the 300 farmers dispersed.

Narong Jiamjaibanjong, deputy managing director of Bangkok Feed Mill Co., a CPF subsidiary, said after the meeting that CPF agreed to consider the pig farmers' demands, which include pushing for a law to control pig production.

Mr Narong denied that CPF's production could influence market pig prices, adding that CPF has only a 19-20% share of the domestic pig market.

According to Mr Narong, CPF has already tried to help boost pig prices by, for example, reducing the size of pig stocks and promoting pork consumption.

Source: Bangkokpost.com