Pol. Col. Tawee Sodsong visited the Panare Halal Industrial Estate in Pattani to hear from private tenants who have leased abandoned land for poultry farming but cannot bear the costs after electricity bills surged to nearly 100,000 baht per month. He urged the government to provide urgent assistance before businesses fail.
On 25 Oct 2026, representatives of private operators in Pattani Province requested help regarding their use of the Halal Food Industrial Estate located in Nam Bo Subdistrict, Panare District, Pattani. They have faced obstacles from rising utility costs and site improvements, which have impacted their liquidity and business operations.
After learning of the issues, Pol. Col. Tawee Sodsong, party-list MP and leader of the Prachachart Party, led a team to urgently inspect the Halal Food Industrial Estate to hear demands and assess the real situation from the operators.
During the fact-finding, private operators leasing space for poultry farming said that before starting, they inspected the old building, which had formerly been a anchovy processing factory left to decay. They planned to renovate the old building into a food production factory and initially budgeted up to 20 million baht to purchase machinery to support product processing and farm expansion.
However, a major obstacle has been the abnormally high electricity costs. Operators revealed that originally, monthly electricity bills averaged about 30,000 baht. After coordinating with the Provincial Electricity Authority, an error was found in the wiring. Yet, after repairing and reconnecting the electrical system, electricity costs nearly doubled to approximately 80,000 baht per month.
"We have sought government support, but budget approval processes have been slow. Private operators cannot wait for bureaucracy, so have had to invest their own funds initially to keep operations running. If the government does not step in soon to remedy or compensate for these infrastructure issues, private investors will be unable to sustain the costs and risk closure," said a representative of the operators.
After inspecting and listening to the private sector, Pol. Col. Tawee Sodsong said the key to solving this problem is that "the government must help, or it will fail." The industrial estate has long been neglected. When private investors take risks to create jobs and stimulate the economy in the three southern border provinces, central and local government agencies must urgently remove obstacles such as basic infrastructure, electrical systems, and financial incentives, rather than leaving private operators to bear the costs of system errors alone.
The outcry from the Panare Halal Industrial Estate not only underscores the failure of the state to manage abandoned industrial land but also serves as a critical test of whether the government will sincerely support private investors who bear risks to sustain local livelihoods, or allow their efforts to fade away under debt burdens.
