Propelled by soaring exports in the first seven months of 2021, Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit has set his sights on raising fruit shipments this year to 180 billion baht, representing growth of more than 30% for the whole year.
Thai fruit export prospects remain promising, but Mr Jurin has urged provincial commercial officials and Thai commercial ambassadors in foreign countries to work together, while the manufacturing sector needs to produce high-quality products demanded by the market.
He said the marketing sector must find additional export markets such as Chile, which now wants more Thai mangosteens and longkongs.
"2021 is likely to be a golden year for the Thai fruit trade, with the country's fruit exports continuing to expand significantly along with other important export products," Mr Jurin said.
According to the ministry, Thailand's frozen and processed fruit exports brought in 131 billion baht in the first seven months this year, an increase of 48.3%.
The robust export growth was attributed partly to a policy delegated by Mr Jurin, who assigned commercial ambassadors in foreign countries the role of salesmen.
In addition, there were online business matching events between foreign importers and Thai fruit traders, in-store promotional activities at leading department stores and key markets in foreign countries, and sales promotion activities on global online platforms such as BigBasket of India and Tmall in China.
"The Thai Fruits Golden Months project has been a successful sales promotion. Over the past seven months, the project has been held in eight locations in China -- Nanning, Hainan, Chongqing, Qingdao, Shanghai, Chengdu, Dalian and Foshan -- generating combined sales of up to 15 billion baht," he said.
Mr Jurin said for the remainder of the year the ministry will organise the promotion in five more locations -- Xiamen, Nanchang, Kunming, Wuhan and Nanning -- hoping to generate 5 billion baht.
In a related development, Mr Jurin yesterday witnessed the signing ceremony of a memorandum of purchase (MoP) between Thai fruit exporters and importers from many countries such as India, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, China, Japan, Spain, South Korea and Indonesia. The deals are worth a combined 2.39 billion baht.
The MoP happened after the ministry held two online business matching events between Thailand's eastern producers and importers on March 24 and 25, and Thailand's southern and northern producers and importers on July 22-23.