BANGKOK, April 11 (TNA) – The Ministry of Agriculture and
Cooperatives says that sale volumes of varieties of Thai durian through online
social media platforms have considerably increased, raising the prices of the Thai
fruit and income of local growers.
Anchana Tracho, Deputy Secretary General of the ministry’s
Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE), said that more and more local durian
orchards have resorted to such popular online social media systems as Facebook
and Line to directly sell their products to consumers with their quality
guarantee and delivery service through the state-run ThailandPost or private
firms.
Anchana told journalists that the direct sale of varieties
of Thai durian through the online social media systems by local growers has
made their produce prices and income become higher than the market benchmark.
Besides, some local durian orchards have clinched deals with
buyers to sell all produce from certain durian trees at the price of about 150
baht per kilogram.
According to the senior official, her office’s recent survey
of local durian orchards in Rayong, Chanthaburi and Trat in the East found that
most of them opted to sell their produce to fruit screening firms, before
locally-grown durians with different quality grades would be sold to retail
store chains in the country and exported to China.
Anchana stated that local agricultural cooperatives have
also played a key role as the middle men between local durian growers and fruit
trading firms, covering issuing the quality certifications to the fruit
businesses, based on the internationally-recognized Good Agricultural Practices
(GAP) and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), and having the fresh Thai durian
processed, frozen and hygienically-packed for exports to China, the United
States and other foreign markets to boost confidence of buyers and the prices
of the varieties of Thai durian. (TNA)
