The Department of Negotiations visited the area of Betong District, Yala Province, paved the way for Thai durians. Build a handicap, expand the world export.
Mrs. Oramon Sapthaweetham Director-General of the Department of International Trade Negotiations revealed that the DIP visited the area to visit the community enterprises in Suan Sakdi, Betong District, Yala Province on July 1st. to meet with entrepreneurs community enterprise and durian farmers Paving the way for the production of durian in the south that began to gradually enter the market in July It has taken advantage of Thailand’s free trade agreements (FTAs) with 18 trading partners, including ASEAN, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, Chile and Peru, which have already lifted tariffs on durian imports from Thailand. Only South Korea remains to collect import tariffs at 36 percent, but will gradually reduce to 0% in 2031 under the RCEP agreement, which is a trade advantage and opportunity for community enterprises, farmers and Thai entrepreneurs. To expand the export of durian products to the world market
Mrs. Oramon said that the Department attaches great importance to the development of trade potential of entrepreneurs. Community enterprises, farmers in the southern border areas, since 2018, the project has been carried out “Building a network connecting the 4 southern border provinces to the ASEAN free trade market” continuously every year, including Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Songkhla, which is an integrated work with partner agencies, including the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center (SBPAC), Office provincial commerce National Farmers Council and the office of the Provincial Farmers Council in the form of field visits along with the seminar To create knowledge and understanding regarding the utilization of FTA for farmers community enterprise and entrepreneurs, which found that there were products with potential and readiness for export Especially fruits, which are important economic crops, such as durian, mangosteen, oranges, longkong and bananas.
For Suan Prestige Betong Durian Community Enterprise Established in 2021 with 7 members, durian planting on an area of 25 rai over 17 years, totaling more than 400 trees, producing 3 species of durian, namely Musang King variety. Ou Qi or Black Thorn and long lychee varieties It is an organic farm to produce organic durian and has been certified GAP standard, which helps to raise the quality and price of durian. Focus on online marketing and some of them are sold in Tops Supermarket. Durian seedlings are also sold at 100 baht per tree, which can be distributed throughout the country a year. 60,000-80,000 trees, currently the product is not enough to meet the market demand. as well as selling frozen durians to tourists and prepare to expand production for export in the future For Betong Durian It is uniquely different from other areas, namely dry yellow color. Unique aroma and sweet taste
In this regard, Thailand exports fresh and frozen durian. Ranked No. 1 in the world in 2021 with a total value of 3.788 million US dollars. Divided into exports of fresh durian worth 3.490 million USD, an increase of 68%, and export of chilled and frozen durian worth 299 million USD, an increase of 42%. The main export market is China, with an export value of 3.4 billion USD (90% of Thailand’s durian exports), followed by Hong Kong at US$197 million (5% of Thai durian exports) and Vietnam US$119 million (3% of Thai durian exports) for the first four months ( January – April 2022) Thailand exports durian to the world market worth USD 721 million. Divided into fresh durian worth $676 million (96% of total Thai durian exports) and chilled and frozen durian export worth USD 45 million.
The main export markets are China, Hong Kong and China Taipei, with total exports to FTA partner countries of US$712 million (99% of total exports), an increase of 23% from the same period in 2021.
