This year could prove fruitful for farmers and agricultural produce shippers as good prices, including for main crops such as rice, cassava, sugar and chilled fresh chicken, are increasing, driven by higher demand and the easing of transport gridlock at borders.
According to Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, the prices for Thai agricultural shipments look promising this year, especially for fruit, which in the first quarter grew by 55% for a value of US$825 million.
Durian exports increased by 237% year-on-year in March, while fresh longan gained 42% and chilled fresh chicken increased by 53%.
This year the ministry set a target for exports of fresh and processed fruit to reach 4.44 million tonnes, up 10% both in quantity and value from 4.04 million tonnes worth 263 billion baht last year.
In the first quarter, rice exports gained 25% to a value of $1.12 billion. The trend for rice exports is continued improvement from last year's tally of 7.7 million tonnes, said the ministry.
"Rice exports have the potential to reach 8 million tonnes this year," said Mr Jurin.
"Thailand is now the second-largest exporter of rice, after India. We plan to increase the development of new rice strains, with nine in the pipeline, compared with only six last year."
Other promising products include cassava, which grew by 1.4% in the first quarter with a value of $1.18 billion.
Cassava may have greater export prospects as more nations express interest in the products, according to the ministry.
Thailand already signed advance contracts with the Philippines for almost 5 million tonnes of cassava, and contracts with other destinations such as Hong Kong, Turkey and others also total 5 million tonnes, which has pushed up the price of fresh cassava to more than 3 baht per kilogramme, said the ministry.
Sugar prices increased by 31.8% in the first quarter, totalling a value of $1.20 billion.
"In general, fruit prices are still very good because of the ministry's policy to assign officials to work aggressively and coordinate contract farming to help improve product prices. We issued 22 measures to push advanced fruit management, starting in March," said Mr Jurin. "The price of Monthong durian sold by farmers to buyers for export is 150 baht per kilogramme, while mangosteen is 110 baht per kg and rambutan 35 baht per kg."
