New team to find ways of rebooting wilting orchid exports
The export of orchids last year dropped by 5 per cent year on year owing to the impact Covid-19 has had on international shipping and consumer demand, the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) said on Friday.
Anchana Tracho, OAE’s deputy secretary-general, said 21,872 tonnes of orchids were exported last year, of which 8,528 tonnes went to Vietnam alone, more than double the 2,913 tonnes exported the previous year. Myanmar also imported 1,069 tonnes of orchids in 2020, recording a five-fold increase from 171 tonnes in the previous year.
“This growth is generally due to the government and public sectors’ moves to seek replacement markets in Asean,” she said.
Anchana added that the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry’s subcommittee on orchids and ornamental plants has set up a working group to come up with schemes to help orchid farmers and businesses. The schemes can range from organising fairs and developing products to seeking new markets, matching businesses and granting soft loans.
"We believe these schemes will help boost the potential of manufacturing and marketing despite the economic slowdown and will also help Thailand remain the world’s largest orchid exporter,” she said.
She added that the working group on February 10 released a scheme to boost domestic consumption.
“This scheme will be proposed to the subcommittee for orchids and ornamental plants product management for consideration,” she added.