Thai junta urged to solve dropping longan prices

CHIANG MAI, August 2 (TNA) - Thai Permanent Secretary for Agriculture and Cooperatives Chavalit Chookajorn has urged the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to help address low longan prices on the domestic market, as a large amount of longans are expected to hit the market later this month, which could cause the prices to further fall. Chavalit on Saturday called for the NCPO to find more measures to help address the problems, including increasing longan exports to the immense Chinese market, pointing out if China agreed to buy more longans from Thailand, it would help boost up domestic prices of the fruit. Chavalit revealed that his ministry has earlier carried out measures to address low longan prices, caused by oversupply, by distributing the produce through agricultural cooperatives nationwide, promoting processing of langan as dried fruit and improving marketing methods, but the measures have not yet solved the problem. Chavalit made the remarks after his ministry held a meeting with concerned agencies in eight longan-growing provinces in the Thai North earlier in the day to discuss solutions to the falling longan prices on the domestic market. (TNA)