DIT helps farmers sell more fruits at supermarkets

BANGKOK, 15 June 2016 (NNT) – A collaboration between the Department of Internal Trade (DIT) and Tesco Lotus has allowed fruit farmers to sell more fruit and cope with the ongoing drought crisis.

According to DIT Director General Wiboonrak Ruamrak, 8.5 million kilograms of rambutans, mangosteens, longans, lychees have been sourced from farmers to sell at 200 Tesco Lotus branches across the country. The feat was made possible by an agreement between the department and the supermarket chain.

The arrangement is also expected to encourage consumers to eat more fruit and promote sustainable income for farmers.

As fruit yields have fallen 30% this year, farmers have also been able to raise their prices. One kilogram of rambutans and mangosteens now costs 39 baht and 55 baht, respectively. Premium mangosteens are being exported at 115 baht per kilogram.

Meanwhile, the DIT chief said commodity prices are likely to remain unchanged over the next few months. She also downplayed fears that sugar prices in Thailand will rise along with global trends, saying that there are enough supplies for domestic consumption.


-- NNT 2016-06-15

Back in the real world closer monitoring of chemicals of chemicals in fruit and vegetables might help improve sales. In Thailand it seems the more fruit and veg you eat the more chemicals you consume.

Thai media reported some little time ago that tests conducted by Thailand’s Pesticide Alert Network (Thai-PAN) on 138 samples of popular fruits and vegetables found 46.6 percent of them contained residues higher than the safety standards.

The tests were conducted in March, looking into 450 kinds of toxic residues.

Thai-PAN coordinator Prokchol Ousup was quoted in the media as saying that residues of 11 prohibited substances were found in the samples.

Many of the tainted samples were guaranteed by the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards as of high quality.

Ousup said 25 percent of the products certified as being organic, which were supposed to be free of chemicals, were found to contain chemical residues beyond the safe limits.

All orange, guava and red samples failed the tests, so did 71.4 percent of dragon fruit samples, 66.7 percent of papaya, basil and long beans, 44 percent of mango, 22 percent of water spinach and 11 percent of tomato and cucumber.

Back in the real world closer monitoring of chemicals of chemicals in fruit and vegetables might help improve sales. In Thailand it seems the more fruit and veg you eat the more chemicals you consume.

Thai media reported some little time ago that tests conducted by Thailand’s Pesticide Alert Network (Thai-PAN) on 138 samples of popular fruits and vegetables found 46.6 percent of them contained residues higher than the safety standards.

The tests were conducted in March, looking into 450 kinds of toxic residues.

Thai-PAN coordinator Prokchol Ousup was quoted in the media as saying that residues of 11 prohibited substances were found in the samples.

Many of the tainted samples were guaranteed by the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards as of high quality.

Ousup said 25 percent of the products certified as being organic, which were supposed to be free of chemicals, were found to contain chemical residues beyond the safe limits.

All orange, guava and red samples failed the tests, so did 71.4 percent of dragon fruit samples, 66.7 percent of papaya, basil and long beans, 44 percent of mango, 22 percent of water spinach and 11 percent of tomato and cucumber.

The Thai government obviously doing a good job of applying standards, laws and regulations then...

Winnie

But who gets the profit of all the fruit that we have to pay more for at Lotus ? The supermarket or farmers ?

Why are fruits so expensive ? Vegetables are more difficult to grow , need more work . Most fruits are easily plucked off trees.

Why can I buy big bags of cabage /salad of 10kg for 40 to 100 B/bag ( depending on season) , Those cucumbers 10kg at 40 B !! Yet getting some ngoh , dragon fruit , langsat , longan, lynchee, ... start at 40 B/kg ...10 times more expensive.

Hey Director General Wiboonrak Ruamrak , I would love to eat more fruit .... but not at these prices !

And I'm one of them "rich" farang ... what about the Thai on 300 B/day spending 40 B or more on 1 lousy kg of ngoh,....?