The increased import of wheat has led to a decline in the prices of maize and tapioca chip made from cassava, as producers have swapped domestic maize and tapioca with imported wheat.

According to the Commerce Ministry report, import of wheat increased from 593,000 tonnes in 2014 to 3.46 million tonnes last year.

This year, it is expected that wheat imports could surge to over 5 million tonnes as feed-meal |producers enjoyed zero tariff instead of the previous tariff of 27 per cent.

A source from the ministry said that almost 1 million maize and cassava farmers had been impacted by the government removing the tariff.

About 450,000 farmers grow maize and some 520,000 grow cassava.

Since the 2013-14 harvest season, the price of maize rose from Bt8.70 a kilogram to Bt9.39 during the drought-hit 2014-15 harvest season before dropping to Bt8.50 now.

The price of tapioca chips decreased from Bt7.37 per kilogram in 2014 to Bt6.40 per kilogram now.

After government waived the import tariff, the price of wheat has fallen by Bt1-Bt2 a kilogram.

The ministry also found that the import of DDGS (distilled dried grains with solubles made from maize) has increased from 226,000 tonnes in 2014 to 462,000 tonnes last year.

More imports of DDGS to supply feed-meal manufacturing caused a drop in maize use.

The ministry reported that major importers of wheat were feed-meal producers Betagro, Laemthong Corporation, Sun Feed, and United Flour Mill and one food producer – Bangkok Producer Merchandising, a subsidiary of CP Group.