Fruit growers seek help from PM to tackle falling prices and declining exports

Durian growers in Thailand’s eastern provinces are seeking help from Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra in resolving problems, ranging from a shortage of cargo containers and pickers to transport gridlock at the Chinese border and the intrusion of elephants into fruit orchards.

The prime minister visited Chanthaburi province on Saturday, to meet with fruit growers, particularly growers of durian, the star of Thai fruits, which generate an estimated several billion baht in revenue annually, mainly from China.

Durian growers are urging the government to authorise provincial governors to regulate the harvesting of durian, to ensure that unripe fruit cannot be exported. They demand that more labs are set up to check the quality of fruit for export, particularly to China, to ensure that they are ripe and that they contain no Basic Yellow 2 fruit dye.

People’s Party MP Yannicha Buapuen, who was also in Chanthaburi, said that she has asked the Labour Ministry to address the problem of the labour shortage in the durian export sector, by allowing migrant workers to remain in the country for up to six months, instead of the current three.

Foraging elephants are also a matter of concern. The growers complain that nine out of ten districts in Chanthaburi are experiencing threats from wild elephants, which often search for food in fruit orchards and plantations.

The growers also claim that the elephants do not just damage their fruit trees, but also pose a danger to people, as evidenced by the increasing incidents of elephant attacks.

Responding to the fruit growers’ calls for help to address the gridlock at the Chinese border, where many trucks loaded with Thai durian often get stuck for several days at a time, the prime minister said the government has been trying to introduce a one-stop service to facilitate the transport of durian into China.

Fruit growers are complaining that the prices of fruits, from durian and mangosteen to mango and pomelo, are steadily falling, so much so that some mango growers have dumped their crops or are letting the fruit rot on the trees, because it is not worth the cost of harvesting them.