Ministry to encourage farmers to grow herbs
By PETCHANET PRATRUANGKRAI
THE NATION

 

BID TO MEET HIGH DEMAND IN GLOBAL MARKET AND TO ALSO BOOST THE INCOME OF GROWERS

 

BANGKOK: -- WITH RISING global concerns about health and ageing societies, the Commerce Ministry has decided to promote Thai herbs internationally with the aim of increasing farmers’ income.

 

Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said that as the government had a policy to boost farmers’ earnings, Thai herbs would be a new star product that the government would encourage them to grow.

 

She said the crop also supported the value-added push as many countries now had high demand for herbs to serve their health consciousness markets and ageing societies.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/business/EconomyAndTourism/30304182

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-01-16

Thai herbs , now with extra Roundup and pesticides that are illegal in western countries , 10 , 20 years ago.

Great idea, only problem now is convincing rice farmers to change.

That would be virtually impossible.

In our family there are 90 rai of land, many times i have spoken the fil/bil to grow something different to rice.

Wasting my time because all they say is only rice will grow on this land.

Try something different, only rice will grow, have you tried other crops., only rice will grow is all they say.

We have a Kobuta 4708 tractor, it never moves for 10 months of the year, stupid but they say pa-pa grow rice here

i grow rice here, my son will grow rice here..

Herbs have a short shelf  life,unless dried,so have to

be moved fast,and cannot be stored ,like rice,tapioca,

rubber,so really they do not want to have too many farmers

to change over to a new crop, as there will be a glut created,

as happens with so many farm products here.

regards worgeordie

The owner of a company producing herbal products told me 2 years ago some herbs were now fetching high prices and it could be worth switching from sugarcane/rubber/ rice to them.

A couple of factors to consider-

A lot of rice paddies are prone to flooding

For the export market would a guarantee of no chemical pesticide/insecticide use be essential?  For our family that would be a problem as farmers on each side of my wife's land use chemical fertilizer/ insecticide etc and it's impossible to prevent that running/seeping on to our land in the rainy season.

 

More of the usual.

 

Why doesn't the government let supply and demand organise the market.

 

I know there is a valid point previously mentioned in that many rice farmers do what their predecessors did and are not likely to change, but still wrong for the government to step in with their half a------d policies which we have seen fail one a number of occasions, eg rubber rice and now cassava, which is now less than half the value of the good times, same as rice.

"... the Commerce Ministry has decided to promote Thai herbs...."

 

"Thailand. The Hub of Herb." Has a nice ring to it. If nothing else, that should increase tourism ten fold. 

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

Great idea, only problem now is convincing rice farmers to change.

That would be virtually impossible.

In our family there are 90 rai of land, many times i have spoken the fil/bil to grow something different to rice.

Wasting my time because all they say is only rice will grow on this land.

Try something different, only rice will grow, have you tried other crops., only rice will grow is all they say.

We have a Kobuta 4708 tractor, it never moves for 10 months of the year, stupid but they say pa-pa grow rice here

i grow rice here, my son will grow rice here..

Find a bulk buyer and they would change, i would, but this is typical here, tell people to change but offer no marketing advice or where to contact outlets, just ''Hey, grow lemon grass'

9 hours ago, soalbundy said:

Find a bulk buyer and they would change, i would, but this is typical here, tell people to change but offer no marketing advice or where to contact outlets, just ''Hey, grow lemon grass'

That is right, farmers will not change, if there's no fairly local buyer...

12 hours ago, jaltsc said:

"... the Commerce Ministry has decided to promote Thai herbs...."

 

"Thailand. The Hub of Herb." Has a nice ring to it. If nothing else, that should increase tourism ten fold. 

I agree,  and food cooked in real fresh herbs (like Indo/Malay) is really awesome....better than Thai ve-tsin cooked food.

 

 

14 hours ago, worgeordie said:

Herbs have a short shelf  life,unless dried,so have to

be moved fast,and cannot be stored ,like rice,tapioca,

rubber,so really they do not want to have too many farmers

to change over to a new crop, as there will be a glut created,

as happens with so many farm products here.

regards worgeordie

As someone who has been growing, manufacturing and selling medicinal and aromatic herbs and herb products for 35 years, I can see you know little about herb commerce.  

19 minutes ago, fruitman said:

I agree,  and food cooked in real fresh herbs (like Indo/Malay) is really awesome....better than Thai ve-tsin cooked food.

 

 

Evidently you don't know that the Thais prepare "food cooked in real fresh herbs." I find the quality of Thai culinary herbs/spices to be of excellent quality.

9 hours ago, HerbalEd said:

Evidently you don't know that the Thais prepare "food cooked in real fresh herbs." I find the quality of Thai culinary herbs/spices to be of excellent quality.

 

The indo/malays use much more fresh herbs and also better recipes.

 

 

I have loads of mint in my garden. Asked my wife if it can be sold down the market (have family member there). Wife says cannot sell, no one pay. 99% ends up on my compost heap.

 

Any suggestions? I have thought of producing Mint sauce for those roast dinners, but very small market in Udon ...