Thailand tightens fruit quality management

Bangkok (VNA) - The Thai Ministry of Commerce’s Internal Trade Department (ITD) is implementing 22 measures to manage fruit supply for this year's harvest, with production estimated to grow by 3% to 6.78 million tonnes.

Director-general of the department Wattanasak Sur-iam said the higher output is attributed to cooler weather late last year and early this year.

The department remains concerned about the quality of fruit and held discussions with the Agriculture Department about introducing stringent measures to control the quality of exports, especially durian, he said.

The ITD also wants to register at least 120,000 orchards for Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) standards this year.

Wattanasak said the 22 measures are focused on four areas, covering plans for production, domestic marketing, foreign marketing, and legal issues.

The Ministry of Commerce and the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry also plan to coordinate with department stores, convenience stores, and gas stations to open areas for farmers to sell their fruit, totalling 100,000 tonnes, he noted.

Another project involves organising Thai fruit festivals at tourist attractions and supporting the free loading of 20kg of fruit onto flights, with a maximum of 42,000 tonnes, he went on.

This year, the Commerce Ministry set a target for exports of fresh and processed fruit to reach 4.44 million tonnes, an increase of 10% both in quantity and value from 4.04 million tonnes worth 263 billion baht (over 7.7 billion USD) last year./.