Covid-19 outbreak boosts online sales of agricultural products

Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chalermchai Sreeon said the ministry had recently collaborated with Lazada to sell agricultural products online, adding that the ministry will sign a memorandum of understanding with Shopee at the beginning of July.
"In the past four months, online sales have increased by 30 per cent," he said. "Chicken meat is the best-selling product during the Covid-19 pandemic."
He said that China had certified an additional 15 poultry processing factories in Thailand.
"Currently, there are 22 poultry processing factories that are able to export poultry meat to China," he said. "We aim to export poultry meat to China worth over Bt12 billion this year."
He said that China also wants pork from Thailand as the African Swine Fever (ASF) had caused pork shortage in China, Vietnam and other countries neighbouring Thailand, adding Thailand is the only country that has controlled the epidemic.
"Therefore, we have to maintain the price of pork because the price in other countries has skyrocketed due to ASF," he said. "Meanwhile, the ministry has cooperated with Laos to facilitate Thai export of pork to China."
He added that Thailand was able to deal with various situations because the ministry had launched these plans before the Covid-19 outbreak.
"Besides, we are able to hire employees who had been laid off due to the Covid-19 outbreak to produce agricultural products that meet the market needs as well," he added.
He advised the government to develop cities and agricultural areas in the Eastern Economic Corridor and at the same time raise farmers' income because many agricultural products in the eastern region were popular among foreign countries.