"longan"

China has agreed to buy longan from 56 Thai exporters provided they strictly follow set procedures of cleaning the fruit.

The Commerce Ministry instructed agriculture and commerce attachés in Beijing on Sunday to urge Chinese authorities to reconsider the ban on longan shipments from Thailand.

A Bt3-billion scheme to subsidise longan farmers suffering Covid-19 impacts will be proposed to the Cabinet next week, Alongkorn Ponlaboot, adviser to the Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, said today.

Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chalermchai Sri-on said on Wednesday (August 5) that he was planning to propose at next week’s Cabinet meeting that a subsidy of Bt2,000 per rai be provided to longan farmers to ease their burden brought on by plummeting prices. The subsidy will be capped at 25 rai.

The Commerce Ministry’s Department of Internal Trade is preparing measures under a Bt340-million budget to help prevent the oversupply of longan in the market while promoting sales and boosting exports, department director-general Wichai Phochanakit said.

The Ministry of Commerce is working with the private sector to relieve stocks of seasonal fruits to prevent domestic oversupply, especially longan whose harvesting period begins in June.

Longan farmers have asked the government to subsidise a minimum price for their crops.

The Bank of Thailand (BOT)’s Northern Region Economy announced on Monday that exports of longans were the highest ever in 2018 earning Bt27.72 billion in total.

Sayan Tanpanich, deputy director of biological industry research and development at the Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR), said on Tuesday (October 22) that the institute’s sulfur dioxide treatment facility, the first prototype in Thailand, has been successful in treating fresh longans and extending their shelf life for export overseas.

A 30-year-old man was killed in an explosion in Chantaburi province on Tuesday afternoon, in an accident suspected of being caused by him leaving two chemical compounds – potassium chlorate and sodium chlorate – out in the hot sun pending mixing them with water for spraying on longan trees.

Soldiers and police arrested two Karen men who were caught injecting opium in a shack at a longan plantation in Lamphun’s Pasang district on Thursday.