Prawns with your petrol? Farmers given new shop window at filling stations
The Department of Fisheries says it will soften the Covid-19 impact for aquatic farmers by enabling them to sell their produce at filling stations and more retail stores.
Department deputy director-general Thaworn Jirasoponrak last week held a video meeting with representatives from the farming, private, and government sectors to discuss the possibility of selling the giant freshwater prawns and other aquatic produce through modern trade channels such as Makro and Tesco Lotus stores.
The department also wants the prawns to be sold at PTT, Bang Chak, and PTG filling stations close to the farms in order to cut transport costs for farmers.
“The private sector expressed its eagerness to participate, so we will now draw up plans to sell the first aquatic produce earmarked for the new retail scheme – giant freshwater prawns,” Thaworn said.
The department estimates that 22,257 tonnes of freshwater prawns will be distributed to the market in 2020, but demand will be lower because of the Covid-19 crisis. Thus new retail channels for the produce had been added to the department’s existing scheme to promote online sales of aquatic produce.