Higher pineapple prices projected

BANGKOK, June 25 (TNA) -- The Office of Agricultural Economics announced that it expects pineapple prices to rise during the second half of the year due to measures introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. Secretary General of the Office of Agricultural Economics Vinaroj Supsongsuk reported that this year's pineapple output outstripped 2017's by 35 per cent. Most of these made its way into the market place in May and June but foreign demand tailed off significantly forcing local factories to lower production. This in turn created an oversupply. The Secretary General expects pineapple prices in the second half of the year to increase because 60 per cent of pineapple stocks have already been bought. Average factory prices for pineapple for the first five months of this year stood at 3.14 baht per kilogramme which is much lower than for the same period last year where prices reached 6.29 baht per kilogramme. Retail prices also slumped to 3.14 baht per kilogramme falling dramatically from 12.28 baht per kilogramme last year. The Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives Minister Krissada Boonraj accordingly ordered an official intervention to help farmers wherein the National Pineapple Policy and Development Committee sanctioned a policy allowing pineapples to be retailed directly to consumers to compensate for lower factory purchases. Furthermore, efforts by the Department of Foreign Trade has been successful in securing Government-Government MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) agreements with Russia and Iran and has made significant headway in breaking into new markets in the US, EU and Asia. Locally the campaign promoting higher consumption of pineapples seems to be working and will no doubt also help to drive up prices in the second half of the year. (TNA)