We can have our fruit, and eat it, too

COMMENTARY

We can have our fruit, and eat it, too

Published: 11 Apr 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

I spent the holidays visiting a friend growing fruit in Chanthaburi and I was amazed when he told me that he had just sold mangosteen at his orchard for 100 baht a kilogramme, a high price for consumers to spend on the so-called queen of fruit.

It was surprising as the mangosteen sold for only 50 baht/kg on the local market very early this harvest season.

Selling it at twice that amount sounds a high price indeed for Thai consumers.

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Eggmeng
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Discussion 2 : 11 Apr 2012 at 08.152
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Grade A fruit, if defined as good looking and sometimes organic, is already sold in Bangkok. You'll find it at Villa and some other shops where it is purchased by rich Thais and foreigners, especially Japanese (where I live anyway.)

Business will not invest more in the employee training, packing materials, and cold storage facilities needed to send more grade A fruit to markets and shops where Thai consumers can't afford to pay a premium for this.

The agriculture industry should work on exporting to people that can afford to buy it, more of the massive amount of fruit that now goes to waste, by finding ways to improve all of the above. Unfortunately farmers have neither the knowledge nor the capital for this, and the middle men who buy their produce have never had a vision that goes beyond "buy cheap and sell dear." What will change this? Reminds me of an old joke.

A bolshevik says to a peasant; "After the revolution you'll eat strawberries."

"But I don't like strawberries."

Says the bolveshik; "After the revolution you'll eat strawberries, and YOU WILL LIKE strawberries!"
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tomb
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Discussion 1 : 11 Apr 2012 at 07.471
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Is the taste of the slightly bruised fruit not the same as the so-called A-grade quality?

I think it's nonsense and even decadent trying to sell fruit for such high prices in Thailand at a time where business owners claim it's hard for them to raise the daily wage to 300 baht a day.
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We can have our fruit, and eat it, too | Bangkok Post: opinion