Govt training army of ‘smart farmers’ to tap global online market
A new government project to promote online exports of agricultural goods has drawn strong interest from farmers seeking a market for their products during the Covid-19 crisis.
Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit revealed that about 200 farmers and entrepreneurs had joined the "Smart Farmer: Online to the World Market" video workshop recently.
Jurin said organising the training seminar online was appropriate during the virus crisis, while its focus was down to the fact that 40 per cent of Thailand is agricultural land and 10 million of its people are farmers.
"The turnout of up to 200 people was encouraging and indicated that farmers are interested in online commerce. These 200 people will spearhead the new online trade in agricultural products, bringing income to the country. We will work with our trade diplomats around the world to create a potential sales team for Thailand in the future."
The Commerce Ministry’s ongoing push to promote Thai agricultural products includes sending fruit to markets under the online “Thailand Fruits: Golden Months” promotion.
For the domestic market, farmers can sell their produce via Thai platforms such as Thailandpostmart, Shopee, Lazada, JD Central, Jatujakmall, Cloudmall, The Hub Thailand and Octorocket.asia.
For international markets, the Commerce Ministry has accelerated online fruit sales by collaborating with global platforms such as Tmall (China), Bigbasket (India), Khaleang.com (Cambodia), Aeon (Japan), Amazon (Singapore and US) and Lotte (South Korea). It has also organised online promotional activities with partner websites in Southeast Asia, China and Europe, and helped link Thai exporters with buyers in South Korea who recently agreed to import 3,200 tonnes of mango, worth up to US$15 million (Bt481 million).