The boycott of 7-Eleven last week may have failed to put a financial dent in the country's largest convenience store franchise. But it has succeeded in raising a big question mark over how agro giant CP is conducting its business.
It's about time.
The 7-Eleven boycott followed an online blog about a supplier's grievances with CP All, the owner of the 7-Eleven franchise in Thailand. According to the blog, 7-Eleven agreed to sell Siam Banana, a snack with banana filling, across the country. As part of the agreement, the supplier had to invest more in production capacity to ensure sufficient supplies, and to ensure recipes adhered to a certain standard. Then the agreement was abruptly broken, putting the supplier deep in debt as 7-Eleven started to sell a similar snack at a cheaper price.
The blog swiftly went viral. CP All denied all allegations and threatened to sue the blog writer, which further fanned public anger and triggered the boycott.
How could a small snack producer generate such fury against an all-powerful corporation?
Actually, the Siam Banana issue is only a part of the long simmering discontent with CP's unchecked power over the agricultural sector, and its widely cast net over retail and other businesses from cable television to telecommunications. It also has its eyes on banking and the proposed high-speed railway system.
It is almost impossible in Thailand for consumers to elude CP's business web. Rice, eggs, chicken, pork, fish, prawns, the ubiquitous 7-Eleven stores and their wide range of ready-made foods, Makro outlets. Have I missed anything?
Its proponents argue that the monopoly allegation is false because CP also has its competitors. They have overlooked the fact that CP is the biggest corporation that controls our country's agricultural sector from farm to plate.
In contract farming, it is the biggest player in chicken and pig production, fish and prawn farms, and corn plantations. Farmers are required to make their own investment and buy farm input such as young animals, animal feed, and seeds from CP which also sets the prices of the produce. Bankrupt farmers under the contract farming system are not uncommon, but no state agencies care to investigate their complaints or make the rules fairer to farmers.
There are other reasons why the Siam Banana grievances quickly captured the public mood. Summer has come with toxic haze and all fingers are pointing to expanding corn plantations in the mountainous North and across the borders.
Under the contract farming system, plantations buy seeds from CP and sell their corn to its animal feed industry. Since these plantations are in forests, the agro giant cannot escape criticism that it plays a big part in deforestation and subsequent flash floods.
It's the same with Thailand's problem with overfishing.
Trawlers and their fine-meshed nets have wiped the sea clean. Baby fish that could have grown big to provide income to fishermen and food for the public are reduced to mere "trash fish" to be sold cheaply to the animal feed industry.
Since many trawlers use forced and slave labour, CP is under fire for supporting this inhumane and environmentally destructive business.
Two years ago, the UK's Sunday Times ran a report on trash fish while a year ago the Guardian exposed the slave labour issue, urging consumer boycotts. This year, the matter resurfaced after Thailand was slapped with a European Union yellow card for failing to clean up its fishery industry.
The agro giant has argued that trash fish are just a small part of its animal feed ingredients.
Yet it is reluctant to stop buying, saying that change "takes time". It has the same response to environmentalists' demands for CP to stop buying corn from forest areas, which is tantamount to supporting forest clearing.
These responses are unacceptable.
Without changing its ways, CP can no longer deny it has become part of the deforestation, toxic haze, and degradation of the sea problems.
It has a choice. It can continue with business as usual and see its brand increasingly tainted. Or it can be more open to grievances of farmers and suppliers, stop being supportive of environmentally destructive businesses, and answer consumers' calls for food traceability.
Consumer trust is important in business today. Once it's shaken, it's difficult to get it back.
In an interconnected world, ripples of consumer discontent can quickly grow into the kind of global disapproval the agro giant will eventually regret.
Sanitsuda Ekachai is editorial pages editor, Bangkok Post.