Oil prices crippling a billion-dollar food source

At the limit: Trawlers docked at a pier as rising diesel prices make fishing operations unprofitable, in Samut Sakhon province. — Reuters

A surge in ­diesel prices triggered by the US-Israeli conflict with Iran is pushing Thailand’s multi-billion-­dollar fishing industry towards a standstill, with fisher­men warning that their boats could be idled within days unless the government steps in.

At the country’s largest fishing port in a central province along the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, over half of the fishing trawlers are already docked and those still operating would likely stop work within days, said Jumpol Kanawa­ree, president of the Samut Sakhon Fishmonger Association.