Chiang Rai: Province tackling pineapple oversupply
It’s not only Phuket where the popular fruit crop, pineapple, is in oversupply. A glut is causing prices to drop, but not only in the southern provinces. In Chiang Rai the provincial government is taking a pro-active approach to try and support farmers through the short-term supply/demand problem.
Chiang Rai Governor, Narongsak Osotthanakkorn has told Thai media that both short-term and long-term actions will be taken to solve the problem of oversupply of pineapple in the northern province of Chiang Rai.
Under short-term measures, all government offices in the province are being instructed to buy pineapple and distribute the fruit for sales at various department stores and retail shops. A pineapple eating week will be held on July 4-6 to help farmers.
Under the long-term measures, the provincial authority will find ways of setting up pineapple processing plants in the province, to which farmers can directly sell their produce. In addition, the farmers will be urged to enter contract farming with a price insurance to guarantee that pineapple price is not too low.
Chiang Rai farmers began to grow pineapple in 2015, despite problems with drought, pineapples grew well as the plants do not need much water. The pineapple prices once rose to 18-20 baht per kilogram.
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