Thai garlic farmers suffer as cheaper Chinese bulbs flooded the market

[webfact]

 

Lamphun/ Thailand - More than 25,000 Thai farmers who grow garlic in Thailand are demanding to stop importing it from China, whose garlic is considerably cheaper due to lower production costs.

 

The China-Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed in June 2003 allowed China to import their garlic to Thailand with 0% tax. 

 

Growers in Thailand are concerned about the China-Laos railway network, fearing it does not lead the Thai economy to have a balance of trade deficit. 

 

Local officials have also raised concerns that the railway will hurt Thailand's agricultural economy and the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). 

 

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The garlic community enterprise in Ban Hong, a district of Lamphun Province, in northern Thailand, accelerate the promotion of organic garlic cultivation which meets more demands in the Chinese markets. 

 

Local garlic grower, Pathipong Nupalao, complained that the Chinese garlic flooded Thai markets and that will make buyers delay their order.

 

Head of Community enterprises Chana Chaichana said Thai Local growers have to bear the cost in their garlic production process while in China, the garlic plantation and trade are huge as they grow them in an extensive area.

 

A greengrocer urged for stopping importing Chinese garlic since a kilogram of it is priced at about 80 baht, considerably lower than Thai prices which stood at 100 baht.

 

-- © Copyright A24 News Agency 2022-04-07

 

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[Whale]

China will eat this place (and others in the region) in the next decade. And with a succession of corrupt governments nothing is going to stop it.

[Guderian]

I should imagine it will come down to taste more than price in the end. Thai garlic is sweet and mild, quite unlike the very strong, slightly astringent garlic we get in northern Europe. Whether this is down to the garlic type or the tropical climate I don't know, but few Thai recipes would work as well using the garlic I buy back home. I prefer Thai garlic as it's more difficult to use too much and spoil the dish.

[HarrySeaman]

I love using Thai garlic when I cook.  It is milder, less bitter, and the odor isn't overwhelming like what I got in the USA.  I generally use more than called for in a recipe, taste, and frequently add even more the next time I cook that dish.

 

By the way, the biggest sin in cooking with garlic occurs if you saute it too long.  It should be added after everything else has finished being sauteed, just before dishing up or before you add liquid.  Saute more than 30 seconds, with constant stirring, and you are burning the garlic and turning it bitter.  If you see a chef on TV add add garlic and onions together before sauteing them, stop watching because they don't know how to cook with garlic properly.

 

Broiled garlic is very similar in taste to roasted garlic.  Bake or broil whole cloves in their paper skins in an oven or saute on a hot skillet until the paper skin burns and the cloves are soft and perfect for sauces.  Broiled or roasted garlic take garlic aioli to a whole new level.  Add whole pealed cloves to the meat dish you are roasting and the cooked cloves are delicious.  Pealed whole cloves will give a soup or stew a mild garlic taste and are also delicious, which is something I discovered when eating boiled crayfish in Louisiana many years ago.

[RichardColeman]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

A greengrocer urged for stopping importing Chinese garlic since a kilogram of it is priced at about 80 baht, considerably lower than Thai prices which stood at 100 baht.

Think it would take my wife a year to use up 1 KG of Garlic, I'd have no objection to the extra 1 baht a month to support the Thai farmers over the chinese

[JimHuaHin]

Was not there a report a few years back about Chinese garlic being bleached and containing acceptable levels of toxic chemicals, so much do that some Western countries had banned it?

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Lamphun/ Thailand - More than 25,000 Thai farmers who grow garlic in Thailand are demanding to stop importing it from China, whose garlic is considerably cheaper due to lower production costs.

Free trade agreements and the belt & braces road not working out to well then?

Som nam na.

[BangkokReady]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Lamphun/ Thailand - More than 25,000 Thai farmers who grow garlic in Thailand are demanding to stop importing it from China, whose garlic is considerably cheaper due to lower production costs.

Wow.  WHo would have thought that China would do the exact same thing it always does?!! ????

[wombat]

I find Chinese garlic tasteless in comparison to Thai grown.
if there has been 0% import tax since 2003, its a bit late to realise that things are crook in Tallarook.

[vandeventer]

6 hours ago, Guderian said:

I should imagine it will come down to taste more than price in the end. Thai garlic is sweet and mild, quite unlike the very strong, slightly astringent garlic we get in northern Europe. Whether this is down to the garlic type or the tropical climate I don't know, but few Thai recipes would work as well using the garlic I buy back home. I prefer Thai garlic as it's more difficult to use too much and spoil the dish.

Have you ever tasted fried garlic? I got a bag very cheap from Lazada and it taste great. They cook it in oil than let it dry out in the hot sun. There's no oily taste just a fried garlic taste.

[davemos]

At point of purchase how do you tell the difference ? All produce from Thailand needs to be labelled corectlly. Form a collective and market it as superior .

[digger70]

2 hours ago, HarrySeaman said:

Saute more than 30 seconds, with constant stirring, and you are burning the garlic and turning it bitter. 

Yep ,nothing worse than burned garlic.

[Tubulat]

7 hours ago, Guderian said:

I should imagine it will come down to taste more than price in the end. Thai garlic is sweet and mild, quite unlike the very strong, slightly astringent garlic we get in northern Europe. Whether this is down to the garlic type or the tropical climate I don't know, but few Thai recipes would work as well using the garlic I buy back home. I prefer Thai garlic as it's more difficult to use too much and spoil the dish.

Happens the same with the onions.

[Will B Good]

Thais are going to have to get savvy......they will need to abandon production of anything the Chinese can supply and focus on products the Chinese can't grow/can't produce......they will wipe out the Thai produce in no time once the trader route is opened up by flooding the market.

[Excel]

Yep Thais don't like competition

[HappyinNE]

My wife (Thai) and I (US) both love garlic.  Whenever I cook i use three or four times the amount called for.  I never cook a meal with less than four cloves.

[Lacessit]

The countries that realize dependence on Chinese supply chains is setting them up for trade blackmail, and develop their own manufacturing capabilities again, will be better off economically. The countries that say business as usual will get swallowed up.

 

While the Chinese proclaim the virtues of free trade to all and sundry, they do not hesitate to apply tariffs and other protection mechanisms to imported goods and services when it suits them.

[DefaultName]

Get used to this, as long as the high ups keep crawling to China, more and more cheap imports will come, at the expense of local businesses.

[swerve]

IMHO Chinese garlic is an excellent product.  This will be a problem for Thai garlic growers.

[Adumbration]

Fear not. When China moves on Taiwan shortly. It will demand allegiance from Thailand and all the other indebted belt and road countries.  Cheap garlic will then be the very least of Thailand's worries.

[patman30]

11 hours ago, Whale said:

China will eat this place (and others in the region) in the next decade. And with a succession of corrupt governments nothing is going to stop it.

Exactly This????
Many here do not realise what is coming with the new railways,
they would be better trying to start a "Buy Thai" campaign
than asking any gov to step in, as that will never happen.

alternative farming methods also needed for many here
monocropping has destroyed the soil and they cannot compete
better to grow diverse organic crops to avoid competing with China
but that requires good soil which will take most a few years to get.

[BangkokReady]

5 hours ago, wombat said:

I find Chinese garlic tasteless in comparison to Thai grown.

I'm afraid Richard from England disagrees:

 

 

[BangkokReady]

3 hours ago, Excel said:

Yep Thais don't like competition

True.  And the only mafia that is big enough to help is not on the side of the average Thai.

[Golden Triangle]

Garlic, the devils spawn, horrible stuff.

[djayz]

1 hour ago, patman30 said:

Exactly This????
Many here do not realise what is coming with the new railways,
they would be better trying to start a "Buy Thai" campaign
than asking any gov to step in, as that will never happen.

alternative farming methods also needed for many here
monocropping has destroyed the soil and they cannot compete
better to grow diverse organic crops to avoid competing with China
but that requires good soil which will take most a few years to get.

Not to mention the ridiculous import tax on agricultural machinery here, which is badly needed to get the local farmers up to more productive and efficient levels. 

[impulse]

51 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

I'm afraid Richard from England disagrees:

Help me out here.  What part of England does that accent come from?

[BangkokReady]

20 minutes ago, impulse said:

Help me out here.  What part of England does that accent come from?

Minsk.

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, Golden Triangle said:

Garlic, the devils spawn, horrible stuff.

https://www.concordmonitor.com/Garlic-history-34999881

[Soikhaonoiken]

Well Thailand, you will sleep with the enemy,  and probably this will only be the start....

[Xonax]

The worlds Free Trade agreements with China benefits China way more, than the other way round. The worlds politicians must have received loads of brown (or maybe red) envelopes to sign these agreements.