Thailand sees strong rise in exports of vegetable, fruits to China

Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce has reported that the country’s exports of fruits and vegetable to China surged 31 percent in the January-May period to 1.2 billion USD.

Export revenue of fruit rose 123 percent to 838.61 million USD. Of the figure, earnings from durian accounted for 48.5 percent, followed by longan, mangosteen and coconut.

However, export revenue of vegetable in the period was only 361 million USD, a drop of 33 percent year on year. Cassava was the major currency earner of the country which made up 96 percent of the total exports of farm produce to China, followed by beans and dried vegetable.

Speaking to the local media, Auramon Supthaweethum, head of the Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Trade Negotiations, said that the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) helped facilitate exports of vegetable and fruits.

She held that the deal is an important tool for Thailand, creating advantages for farmers and exporters.

The 1.4-billion-strong market of China has high consumption power, she said, adding that trade surplus of Thailand in the market rose to 854.75 million USD in the January-May 2019 period from only more than 100 million USD before the ACFTA took effect in 2003.

Thailand’s vegetable and fruit exports to China in 2018 reached about 1.93 billion USD, of which over 1 billion USD was from fruits and 909.6 million USD from vegetable.-VNA