More retailers have lent a hand to help farmers, with Tops supermarkets and Jae Leng Plaza being the latest to set aside space for rice growers to sell their grain.
Central Food Retail, the operator of the Tops supermarket chain, has joined hands with the Internal Trade Department to provide space for farmers, starting at its branch at Central Chaeng Wattana in Bangkok until Monday.
The farmers' groups who are selling their grain there are from Ratchaburi, Ayutthaya, Surin, Buri Ram and Nakhon Phanom.
The campaign will move to other Tops branches including at those at Central Pinklao, Rama II, Rama III, Rattanthibet, Rangsit in Bangkok and nearby provinces, as well as Central shopping centres in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Udon Thani, Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Rayong, among others.
Pattaraporn Penprapat, deputy managing director for marketing and public relations at Central Food Retail, said the campaign aimed to help farmers and promote more rice consumption among Thais.
Also on Saturday, Areeyachat Apisitamornkul, owner and CEO of A&J Beauty Products Co, the operator of Jae Leng Plaza in North Bangkok, said at least 50 shops would be available for farmers to sell their grain for free.
The plaza will also have a campaign giving out a 10-baht discount coupon to buy the grain for every 1,000 baht spent at Jae Leng store, which mainly sells imported food and beauty products, she said.
The campaign runs from Tuesday to Jan 31 next year, Mrs Areeyachat added.
Farmers have been struggling after rice prices plummeted to record lows in decades in recent months. They claimed millers quoted very low prices for their paddy. But the millers argued their hands were tied because most of the paddy had high moisture and it was exporters, not they, who set the prices amid a glut globally.
Farmers have been trying to help themselves by turning to cooperatives to mill the paddy and sell the grain directly to consumers, bypassing millers and traditional middlemen. The government has supported the move and farmer-to-consumer markets have sprouted nationwide with the help of local authorities.