Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce is planning to reduce the import of coconut and institute a tighter control on the importers, aiming to address the price slump of Thai coconut
As reported by Vietnam Plus, the commerce ministry is working alongside the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to monitor the situation of domestic coconut. This follows the complaint received from country’s coconut growers that the price slump was due to the imported coconuts.
According to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Thailand imports about 2,317 tonnes of coconut each year, said the source.
Thailand’s domestic coconut demand is projected at 1.1mn tonnes. However, the country produces about 860,000 tonnes of coconuts a year, which is significantly lower than the domestic demand. Therefore, Thailand has to rely on the coconut imports from the neighbouring nations as well as from the international marketplaces, which, in turn, reduces the price for Thai coconuts.
The ministry is taking tighter steps to monitor the country’s coconut industry so that the smallholder growers do not suffer from price slit.
