How to locate fruit wholesalers

[son_of_erko]

So the wifie wants to go back home and start a fruit farm, (probably melons of some description), i have no problems with the growing side of the business but when it actually comes to getting the product sold i have zero experience with locating wholesalers, where can i start looking for these contacts? I've searched the local area via Google, but i'm obviously using the wrong terms as i'm not getting anything informative back, we'll be located in the North outside Chiang Mai.

 

 

 

 

[son_of_erko]

to add to the post, i'm looking for an out let to buy the whole crop rather than piece meal, i'm not interested in sitting by the side of the road with a pick up load of produce hoping that someone will stop and buy what i'm flogging, not anyway to run a business.

 

so how to locate a company that would be willing to contract a small small holding to a quota per year?

[thoongfoned]

export to china? wechat contacts? must be afew china men in your province buying up veg/fruit  ect.... maybe start with facebook melon growers chiang mai? see who does what/how? 

[son_of_erko]

yea I've visited a few melon farms, but getting wholesale supply information out of the staff / owners is not very forth coming. 

 

they seem to be very tight lipped ???? so i was hoping some one here might have experience with that side of the farming business, and could point me in the right direction.

 

 

 

 

[Matzzon]

You should contact the Department of International Trade. They can give you information of where to find all fruit exporters in Chiang Mai as well as all over Thailand.

Tel: +66 (0) 2507 8361- 64, 0 2507 8404

[son_of_erko]

18 minutes ago, Matzzon said:

You should contact the Department of International Trade. They can give you information of where to find all fruit exporters in Chiang Mai as well as all over Thailand.

Tel: +66 (0) 2507 8361- 64, 0 2507 8404

Thanks Matzzon that's a great suggestion for a starting point 

[Grumpy John]

If melon buyers are like mango buyers they will find you.  But its doubtful they would take your whole crop if it isn't maturing at the same time. Over the course of the season we will sell several times. Our first lot of Green mangoes will be 20th December to end of year and our Yellow mangoes from 28th to early Jan.   About 3 to 4 ton of Green and 5 + ton of Yellow.  Our next lot will be a bit less in tonnage and due mid-Jan off the same trees.  But remember this: Selling to a buyer who does nothing more than grade and pack the mangoes,  put them on a pickup and transport to wherever in the next 24 hours will make more profit then you have for a whole years work.  So the farmer/sellers on the side of the road don't look so stupid after all! 

[son_of_erko]

1 minute ago, Grumpy John said:

If melon buyers are like mango buyers they will find you.  But its doubtful they would take your whole crop if it isn't maturing at the same time. Over the course of the season we will sell several times. Our first lot of Green mangoes will be 20th December to end of year and our Yellow mangoes from 28th to early Jan.   About 3 to 4 ton of Green and 5 + ton of Yellow.  Our next lot will be a bit less in tonnage and due mid-Jan off the same trees.  But remember this: Selling to a buyer who does nothing more than grade and pack the mangoes,  put them on a pickup and transport to wherever in the next 24 hours will make more profit then you have for a whole years work.  So the farmer/sellers on the side of the road don't look so stupid after all! 

thanks for the input John, i didn't say they were stupid, i said its no way to run a business in my opinion its just not scalable.

 

 

[Grumpy John]

7 minutes ago, son_of_erko said:

thanks for the input John, i didn't say they were stupid, i said its no way to run a business in my opinion its just not scalable.

 

 

"I didn't say they were stupid" I know.....but I did when I first came here.  5 It's a bit like me yelling at morons on motorbikes when I was first here.  Their not all morons they just don't follow the road rules. ???? After almost 11 years here you see things differently!

 

[ezzra]

Word to the wise, in Thailand most of the produce markets as well as the wholesale systems runs, control and operated by a powerful bosses and some says a type of mafia, that by just bringing a crop to a market wanting to sell it might not be so easy and clear cut, one will do well to do their homeworks before embarking on growing stuff to sell and market...

[son_of_erko]

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

 that by just bringing a crop to a market wanting to sell it might not be so easy and clear cut, one will do well to do their homeworks before embarking on growing stuff to sell and market...

precisely Ezzra, that is not the intent. I've started calling the DITP for a list of exporters and i'll start researching from there.