TUF launches shrimp price guarantee
Play
Thai Union Frozen Products announced Wednesday the shrimp price guarantee scheme, to prevent a possible shortage of shrimp output.
Rittirong Boonmechote, president of TUF's global shrimp business, said that a consistent fall in domestic price has discouraged farmers from kicking off the next investment round.
"Without a guarantee, this could negatively affect the industry in the next 3-4 months. This impact would be felt domestically and internationally, as shrimp is one of Thailand's top export items," he said.
Under the scheme which will run until March 2016, TUF would buy 12,000 tonnes of shrimp at the guaranteed price of Bt150 per kg. Participating the scheme, farmers can sell their products to other buyers if the market price then is above the guaranteed price.
In the first eight months of this year, Thailand's shrimp output totalled 135,057 tonnes, an 18 per cent increase from the same period last year.
TUF expects the full-year output to increase 20 per cent from last year, to 250,000 tonnes, thanks to its price-guarantee scheme.
