Thailand's longan production in eight northern provinces is expected to see a drop of 40-50% this year due to severe hot weather and a reduction in the growing areas by farmers after prices dropped significantly over the past 2-3 years during the pandemic, which discouraged them from planting the crop.
According to Tanakrit Tunwattanagul, president of the Northern Dried Longan Producers Association, factories producing dried longan are now ready to purchase produce from farmers for drying due to depleted stockpiles in both Thailand and China.
This situation has increased demand for dried longan, resulting in an increase of the price of premium fresh longan to 30-35 baht per kilogramme.
It is expected that the price may further improve and return to levels seen in 2019 when it reached a peak of 38-40 baht per kg. The price of longan dropped significantly during China's lockdowns and the closure of its border checkpoints in recent years, which discouraged farmers from planting this crop.
"Hundreds of dried longan factories are now believed to be getting prepared to come and immediately purchase the produce. The longan season is expected to be from July to September, with the peak period in August," Mr Tanakrit said. "Nevertheless, it is predicted that this year the dried longan factories will compete to buy the farmers' longan, of which the harvest is likely to be delayed and reduced due to the drought and the decrease in the cultivation area caused by significantly low prices over the past 2-3 years during the pandemic. The situation led many farmers to reduce the number of their longan trees by 10% and shift their focus to planting durians and avocados instead."
According to Mr Tanakrit, the longan cultivation area in the eight northern provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang, Lamphun, Phayao, Tak, Phrae and Nan accounted for 75% of the total nationwide. The entire country has a cultivation area of 1.7 million rai, 1.2 million rai of which belongs to these eight provinces.
The country's total longan pro- duction, including both in-season and off-season, across the whole country is 1.55 million tonnes a year, with the northern region contributing 1.03 million tonnes during both in-season and off-season harvests.
Mr Tanakrit, centre, is discussing with Mr Goranij, right, to cope with longan production from northern provinces which is scheduled to churn out over the next three months.
Goranij Nonejuie, deputy director-general of the Internal Trade Department, said the department has prepared measures to deal with the longan production situation in the northern region that will be released to the market from late July to September this year.
The department has also already signed a memorandum of understanding with entrepreneurs to purchase 145,000 tonnes of longan from farmers, which will start as soon as the produce enters the market. There are also plans to buy longan to be sold at 600 branches of local supermarkets nationwide, 100 villages and condominiums, and 100 mobile commercial points in Bangkok and its surrounding provinces.
The department has also coordinated with the northern region's longan drying plants and petrol stations to help purchase longan from farmers and facilitate longan sales throughout the season.
"The department is confident that with the existing measures, including efforts to accelerate the distribution of the produce from the production sources during the peak season, longan purchases for export, and amid strong Chinese market demand, this year's longan prices will be much better than the previous year," said Mr Goranij.