Bumper harvests aren't bringing tidy profits

Fruit markets are overflowing with produce, and yet vendors are drowning in losses, writes Sooksodsai Sooksomchitra

- Sooksodsai Sooksomchitra

Mangoes have been selling at Huai Khwang Market for as low as 20 baht per kilogramme recently.

Pikul, a vendor, said she cannot remember the last time mangoes were so cheap.

"I've never seen prices so low. This situation is really hurting farmers. Mango growers are in trouble — I feel for them," said Pikul, who has worked at her stall for decades.

Her fruit comes in fresh each morning from the Simummuang wholesale market, but by evening she is forced to sell overripe mangoes at giveaway prices or simply discard them.

Tu, 26, another fruit seller at the market, says wholesalers are in even worse shape since they buy directly from the orchards.

"They complain there's just too much fruit — way more than usual," she says, adding wholesalers will either give away or feed the surplus to animals.

The Department of Internal Trade reports a 25% drop in average farmgate prices on key fruit crops this season, the biggest slump in a decade.