Fresh produce prices skyrocket, inflation reaches new high

[neverdie]

The price of ginger has gone up dramatacilly, I used to be able to buy it for 40 baht a kilo I was quoted at 150 baht a kilo yesterday, a nightmare when I use it in many dishes.

How much ginger are you eating?

Or perhaps I should ask, how fine is your budget?

Fruit & Veggies always cheap in Thailand IMO, especially when I consider the prices they charge in my home country. You want to see expensive crap fruit and veg, go no further than any Woolworths or Coles in Australia and price up some things. Bunch of Basil, $3-4, and it's terrible, doesn't smell like basil, not really taste like it either.

I recently saw garlic at $50 per kg and they grow that stuff in Australia.

All around the world, prices up, taxes up, services down. Chances are you're being shafted in life at every corner, What to do?

Now back to my original question. How much ginger to make such a nightmare?

Anyone that buys the Japanese apples in tops, deserves to pay 199 baht. Crazy. I thought those items were only on the shelves for the hiss crew to buy in front of their friends.

[fabphil]

LennyW, on 02 May 2014 - 16:07, said:

The price of limes must have a huge bearing on this - the prices for them are getting out of hand, i saw shitty little ones in Tesco at the weekend 12 baht each!!

I bought a whole bottle of lime concentrate, 15 Baht.

Read the table of contents, it contains no LIME, just flavor

Same as pretty much all of their packaged juices , flavour only..this i know as i had the opp to export some of these so called 100 %

juices had to get the paperwork from the producer..not one scerin of friut all chemical flavour...

[GentlemanJim]

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Egg, Garlic and Mangoe diet it is then ! I wonder what an omlette with these ingredients would taste like ??? alt=sick.gif>

You should all try my special! Chuck spaghetti in the rice cooker, add assorted veg; meanwhile prepare a tin of sardines in a bowl, mix all sorts of stuff with this, Worcestershire sauce, peanut butter etc. Then dump your veg and spaghetti on top and cover for five minutes. Uncover and mix well. Enjoy. Yum Yum!

That sounds more like 'chuck up' spaghetti

[ginjag]

LennyW, on 02 May 2014 - 16:07, said:

The price of limes must have a huge bearing on this - the prices for them are getting out of hand, i saw shitty little ones in Tesco at the weekend 12 baht each!!

I bought a whole bottle of lime concentrate, 15 Baht.

Read the table of contents, it contains no LIME, just flavor

Same as pretty much all of their packaged juices , flavour only..this i know as i had the opp to export some of these so called 100 %

juices had to get the paperwork from the producer..not one scerin of friut all chemical flavour...

Touching on the meat-PORK - subject, a friend of mine visiting Thailand for a month. I took her to a local Large store to the meat section, she is a normal English housewife. At the pork section she said what is this RUBBISH. I explained to her this pork SOW meat is the normal pork for sale as the Thai never see good quality they accept it. She mentioned the price at 150 baht + per kilo was for THAILAND outrageous. She said there is no need for this here as they produce at a low cost thousands of pig farms to breed good young pigs.

The only time you see small pigs is at BBQ spit roasted pig.

What happens here is the female pig (sow) is bred for producing piglets until it has passed it's sell by date OLD SOW, then is killed and shoved out to outlets--shops--local markets. Here you see that the pig farm is getting a 2 in 1, breeding and retail pork outlet. GREED.

[neverdie]

TOPS Market has nice looking apples. Large size. 199 baht each. In round numbers, that's US$6.00 each.

These are not ceremonial fruit, wrapped in mesh and nestled into a fine wooden box with a sliding top, Japanese style. They are just loose in a basket.

Who buys stuff like that?

Thais with money.

I am not making a smartass comment either. The retailer would not carry the product unless there was a demand and he could move it, right?

I've been in various Centrals with their expensive shops. Many of the prices are EU/North American levels.

And yet the stores do have customers. When I look at these people, they are regular folks and are not covered in bling.

What I don't understand is that I earn a decent salary, but I consider those goods too expensive and yet, a teenager will go into the store and drop 5000 baht no problem. The Thais love their shopping bags from the stores. I just don't get it. Where do they get the money? Central wouldn't have these wonderful shopping centers filled with retailers paying high rents unless there was a market for it. In Hua Hin, every weekend there's a traffic jam filled with BMWs, Mercedes and SUVs.

Thais with credit as well. There's plenty of people driving around in cars at all levels, they can't afford it but like to make the appearance anyhow. Not that I'm trying to suggest they all fall into that category.

I know one Thai lady with scary amounts of credit card debt, barely keeps her head above water but loves to prance around places like Central and tops with all the fancy plastic bags.......meanwhile I'm down the market haggling for specials.

What you see and the reality behind it are often two different things.

[Mister Fixit]

This Skyrocket price inflation is where ?

Cannot say I noticed, 2 kg cheese this week was still 655 baht, so is cheaper than about 3-4 years ago, also needed butter 5kg still the same price as 1 year ago, big Lemons cost 14 baht so why buy 12 baht tiny limes ? fresh Veg on the Village markets appear to be the same price, Thursday on going shopping stopped for Lunch at a nice little place, still the same price, big plate, red pork mix 25 baht... went up about 4 years ago from 20 baht.

For sure bottled Gas has gone up each time need another bottle, but that was expected... Mango's believe this year are cheaper then ever before.. Thursday 10 kg for 100 baht big yellow ripe one.. I am sure in all the years have never got 10 kg for that price

I'd love to know where you get 2 kg of cheese for 655 baht. Makro?

[ginjag]

This Skyrocket price inflation is where ?

Cannot say I noticed, 2 kg cheese this week was still 655 baht, so is cheaper than about 3-4 years ago, also needed butter 5kg still the same price as 1 year ago, big Lemons cost 14 baht so why buy 12 baht tiny limes ? fresh Veg on the Village markets appear to be the same price, Thursday on going shopping stopped for Lunch at a nice little place, still the same price, big plate, red pork mix 25 baht... went up about 4 years ago from 20 baht.

For sure bottled Gas has gone up each time need another bottle, but that was expected... Mango's believe this year are cheaper then ever before.. Thursday 10 kg for 100 baht big yellow ripe one.. I am sure in all the years have never got 10 kg for that price

I'd love to know where you get 2 kg of cheese for 655 baht. Makro?

Pay a bribe to the mouse, and takes it out the traps.

[starkey_rich]

Egg, Garlic and Mangoe diet it is then ! I wonder what an omlette with these ingredients would taste like ???

Just make sure you add a heap of chilli then that will block the other flavours,just stay close to the toilet though.

You mean just make any typical Thai dish then.

Chilli, chilli and more chilli

[alocacoc]

This Skyrocket price inflation is where ?

Cannot say I noticed, 2 kg cheese this week was still 655 baht, so is cheaper than about 3-4 years ago, also needed butter 5kg still the same price as 1 year ago, big Lemons cost 14 baht so why buy 12 baht tiny limes ? fresh Veg on the Village markets appear to be the same price, Thursday on going shopping stopped for Lunch at a nice little place, still the same price, big plate, red pork mix 25 baht... went up about 4 years ago from 20 baht.

For sure bottled Gas has gone up each time need another bottle, but that was expected... Mango's believe this year are cheaper then ever before.. Thursday 10 kg for 100 baht big yellow ripe one.. I am sure in all the years have never got 10 kg for that price

I'd love to know where you get 2 kg of cheese for 655 baht. Makro?

What kind of cheese is that? Cheddar?

btw; have someone a clue where to get creamed spinach? BigC sold this for a while...but not anymore....

And Freindship Market sold frozen "ready to eat" smashed potato's. Also not longer available. Some ideas where to find?

Edited May 3, 2014 by alocacoc

[ginjag]

This Skyrocket price inflation is where ?

Cannot say I noticed, 2 kg cheese this week was still 655 baht, so is cheaper than about 3-4 years ago, also needed butter 5kg still the same price as 1 year ago, big Lemons cost 14 baht so why buy 12 baht tiny limes ? fresh Veg on the Village markets appear to be the same price, Thursday on going shopping stopped for Lunch at a nice little place, still the same price, big plate, red pork mix 25 baht... went up about 4 years ago from 20 baht.

For sure bottled Gas has gone up each time need another bottle, but that was expected... Mango's believe this year are cheaper then ever before.. Thursday 10 kg for 100 baht big yellow ripe one.. I am sure in all the years have never got 10 kg for that price

I'd love to know where you get 2 kg of cheese for 655 baht. Makro?

What kind of cheese is that? Cheddar?

btw; have someone a clue where to get creamed spinach? BigC sold this for a while...but not anymore....

And Freindship Market sold frozen "ready to eat" smashed potato's. Also not longer available. Some ideas where to find?

Tesco UDON THANI, potatoes at 39 baht a kilo. Steam them, mash them up with some butter until no lumps. mix and place into boxes meal sized-into your freezer. is that not possible. ???

If you want cheese potato, do exactly the same but add cheese rather than butter.

[Vacuum]

andygunther, on 03 May 2014 - 11:55, said:

Vacuum, on 02 May 2014 - 21:24, said:

LennyW, on 02 May 2014 - 16:07, said:LennyW, on 02 May 2014 - 16:07, said:

The price of limes must have a huge bearing on this - the prices for them are getting out of hand, i saw shitty little ones in Tesco at the weekend 12 baht each!!

I bought a whole bottle of lime concentrate, 15 Baht.

Read the table of contents, it contains no LIME, just flavor

Ok. But it taste like lime, good enough for me.

[ignis]

I'd love to know where you get 2 kg of cheese for 655 baht. Makro?

What kind of cheese is that? Cheddar?

btw; have someone a clue where to get creamed spinach? BigC sold this for a while...but not anymore....

And Freindship Market sold frozen "ready to eat" smashed potato's. Also not longer available. Some ideas where to find?

Yes Cheddar there own brand name ARO which is more or less the same taste as ANCHOR., lasts about 8 months, use mostly for cooking, in or on things.. use the same brand for Butter only that is a bigger pack and last about 18 months + often see Thais buy the 3 and 5 KG packs.

[MrJohnson]

This morning I went o awoke wet market and purchased the following;

6 large potato

1 bunch of asparagus

2 large beet roots

1/4 of a large pumpkin

1 bag of green beans

Total Cost = B140

Still pretty reasonable

I I think the seasonal availability of things like limes should perhaps be taken into consideration.

[Thai at Heart]

It's all relative though, well it depends how you have your money / income. I assume most of you guys have pensions so I hope you have it kept in your respective currencies.. I have an income most of GBP which is at like 54 baht to the pound now, which is the highest it has been for 4 years?

Well that's inflation for you. But all those people who were screaming 6 months ago that the currency was too strong and that exports needed a weaker currency to help.

So here we are. And the net effect is? Virtually zero. You cannot devalue yourself to export growth in the end. Efficiency, innovation to make savings is better than just cheapening the product.

Your assertion is clearly untrue. We know this because of what's happened in the Eurozone. Countries such as Spain and Greece were not able to devalue their currency and so are condemned to years of economic shrinkage or very very low growth. As for inflation, if, in fact, it is at 2.45% from a year ago, this is not bad news at all. What's more, basing your inflation figures on volatile items like food, particularly fresh food, is going to result in wild volatility and is not a useful measure of the inflation rate.

You can devalue yourself out of a debt crisis yes. Like Greece or thailand, but that would involve a massive davelaution. That involves a collapse not a slight devaluation of the currency.

You can get a momentary growth in exports from a small devaluation, like the UK now. It is seeing a few percentage point increase in exports because the pound HSS weakened in the last few years.

Thailand needs export growth of 10% per year. How low does the baht need to go to get that?,,its already 15% versus the pound and USD, and if anything export growth is less than a couple if years ago.

Funny how the Germans, during their massive sustained growth periods of the 80a onwards never complained about their currency being too strong. They just kept making better and better products. In some ways, the luxury British car industry has learnt this.lesson also.

[sendbaht]

don't do eggs, dairy or meat/fish...grow a lot of my own fruit and veggies....have not noticed the price hikes yet. Inflation does make it tough on a lot of folks though.

[JesseFrank]

LennyW, on 02 May 2014 - 16:07, said:

The price of limes must have a huge bearing on this - the prices for them are getting out of hand, i saw shitty little ones in Tesco at the weekend 12 baht each!!

I bought a whole bottle of lime concentrate, 15 Baht.

Read the table of contents, it contains no LIME, just flavor

The bottle I bought from Big C says, contents 50% lime juice, 6% of something I can't read because it is in Thai.

[ozyjon]

Never been a huge fan of mangoes, i rather prefer womangoes better.

[sirchai]

I had a chat with a Thai just recently and we came to the conclusion that 100 baht 12 years back was pretty much similar to 1000 baht now.

Biggest problem might be that people don't earn more money, but all has gotten much more expensive.

[lahgon29]

What you think Is expensive has much to do with where you come from....Being from Brisbane, I find fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, Pork, Chicken, electricity, gas, water very cheap. I haven't noticed the inflation effect...

I can't see Thailand ever having even near Aussie prices for anything....I don't pay general rates here either, so they can't raise those 5% a year.

I agree with the posters saying buy in season....Sensible...Now..Mangoes, In August, 3-4 months of cheap avacados will be back, then next Winter, a few months of English spinach and cheap Broccoli.

[alocacoc]

This Skyrocket price inflation is where ?

Cannot say I noticed, 2 kg cheese this week was still 655 baht, so is cheaper than about 3-4 years ago, also needed butter 5kg still the same price as 1 year ago, big Lemons cost 14 baht so why buy 12 baht tiny limes ? fresh Veg on the Village markets appear to be the same price, Thursday on going shopping stopped for Lunch at a nice little place, still the same price, big plate, red pork mix 25 baht... went up about 4 years ago from 20 baht.

For sure bottled Gas has gone up each time need another bottle, but that was expected... Mango's believe this year are cheaper then ever before.. Thursday 10 kg for 100 baht big yellow ripe one.. I am sure in all the years have never got 10 kg for that price

I'd love to know where you get 2 kg of cheese for 655 baht. Makro?

What kind of cheese is that? Cheddar?

btw; have someone a clue where to get creamed spinach? BigC sold this for a while...but not anymore....

And Freindship Market sold frozen "ready to eat" smashed potato's. Also not longer available. Some ideas where to find?

Tesco UDON THANI, potatoes at 39 baht a kilo. Steam them, mash them up with some butter until no lumps. mix and place into boxes meal sized-into your freezer. is that not possible. ???

If you want cheese potato, do exactly the same but add cheese rather than butter.

Yes. It is possible. I'm a lazy bastard

[Benmart]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

LennyW, on 02 May 2014 - 16:07, said:

The price of limes must have a huge bearing on this - the prices for them are getting out of hand, i saw shitty little ones in Tesco at the weekend 12 baht each!!

I bought a whole bottle of lime concentrate, 15 Baht.

Which is 10% limes, 50% sugar and 40% chemicals.

It depends on the brand perhaps. I may be wrong since I haven't checked every brand available in Thailand.

[PETERTHEEATER]

The price of limes must have a huge bearing on this - the prices for them are getting out of hand, i saw shitty little ones in Tesco at the weekend 12 baht each!!

And yet my friends who like San Miguel light are still getting a wedge of lime stuffed into the tops of their bottles.

That could end soon!

Then they should drink out of a glass like civilised people.......

[ginjag]

Never been a huge fan of mangoes, i rather prefer womangoes better.

Or woman comes.

[ginjag]

What kind of cheese is that? Cheddar?

btw; have someone a clue where to get creamed spinach? BigC sold this for a while...but not anymore....

And Freindship Market sold frozen "ready to eat" smashed potato's. Also not longer available. Some ideas where to find?

Tesco UDON THANI, potatoes at 39 baht a kilo. Steam them, mash them up with some butter until no lumps. mix and place into boxes meal sized-into your freezer. is that not possible. ???

If you want cheese potato, do exactly the same but add cheese rather than butter.

Yes. It is possible. I'm a lazy bastard

I did not intent to mean that, but was giving an easy recipe for help--tell the Mrs.

[ginjag]

I had a chat with a Thai just recently and we came to the conclusion that 100 baht 12 years back was pretty much similar to 1000 baht now.

Biggest problem might be that people don't earn more money, but all has gotten much more expensive.

20 years ago 3 coloured Pattaya T shirts 100 baht. some styles even less. 1st m/cycle rent Pattaya 60 baht a day inc insurance.

Edited May 3, 2014 by ginjag

[Ombra]

'The Daily Beast' published an article called Limepocalypse on April 30th. It said that 97% of US limes come from Mexico and that the lime-growing regions have been badly hit by storms. Therefore, expect high prices and shortages.

[losworld]

TOPS Market has nice looking apples. Large size. 199 baht each. In round numbers, that's US$6.00 each.

These are not ceremonial fruit, wrapped in mesh and nestled into a fine wooden box with a sliding top, Japanese style. They are just loose in a basket.

Who buys stuff like that?

Thais with money.

I am not making a smartass comment either. The retailer would not carry the product unless there was a demand and he could move it, right?

I've been in various Centrals with their expensive shops. Many of the prices are EU/North American levels.

And yet the stores do have customers. When I look at these people, they are regular folks and are not covered in bling.

What I don't understand is that I earn a decent salary, but I consider those goods too expensive and yet, a teenager will go into the store and drop 5000 baht no problem. The Thais love their shopping bags from the stores. I just don't get it. Where do they get the money? Central wouldn't have these wonderful shopping centers filled with retailers paying high rents unless there was a market for it. In Hua Hin, every weekend there's a traffic jam filled with BMWs, Mercedes and SUVs.

I think you answered your own question they get their money from selling oranges for 1.99 each among other things.

[Mudcrab]

No way it could be due to the tripling of the minimum wage?

Edited May 3, 2014 by Mudcrab

[Valentine]

Sky rocketing food prices worry the average person much more than these endless power plays by the greedy. Any party with a sensible policy on this would most likely win a lot of votes. I thought rice was about half the price 5 to 7 years ago yet here we have these rice mountains & the price is not coming down.

[ginjag]

What you think Is expensive has much to do with where you come from....Being from Brisbane, I find fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, Pork, Chicken, electricity, gas, water very cheap. I haven't noticed the inflation effect...

I can't see Thailand ever having even near Aussie prices for anything....I don't pay general rates here either, so they can't raise those 5% a year.

I agree with the posters saying buy in season....Sensible...Now..Mangoes, In August, 3-4 months of cheap avacados will be back, then next Winter, a few months of English spinach and cheap Broccoli.

Took the wife to Tesco shopping and asked could I have 1 kilo of limes for my wife --he said sorry I don't do swaps.

My wife loves shops and shopping I bought her a JAGUAR for Xmas, it ate her on Boxing day.