Many in the food and beverage industry are urging the government to ease regulations on exports as fresh produce rot away in storage due to the State of Emergency (SOE).
Curfew and strict checkpoints throughout the country are affecting their exports, said fruit vendors in earlier reports. They end up rotting away in containers because of late arrivals and added screening processes at their destinations.
The export of rice is also struggling for similar reasons.
Craft-beer and wine
Representatives of alcohol vendors and importers from seven associations asked the government to reconsider the regulations for tax returns and the destruction of deteriorated liquor.
Vendors and importers are left with an oversupply of stock that will expire before the lockdown is lifted.
They also asked the government to ease regulations on the transportation of craft-beer and wine that require storage at a specific temperature.
Due to the high cost needed to properly stock these products, importers cannot easily ship them to the proper temperate facilities.
They also added that the closure of local retailers will affect both vendors and importers, which will negatively affect economic recovery in the future.
They pointed out that the government’s revenue from tax on beer sales amount to 70.09 billion baht in 2019. The tax collection on the sale of other alcohol amount to 62.15 billion baht. This means that the government’s total income from alcohol sales has amounted to 132.24 billion baht in 2019.
Eggs
Chaisorn Saha Farm produces around 350,000 eggs per day in Suphan Buri. They said over the weekend that the prices of eggs have dropped dramatically due to oversupply.
The demand for eggs, along with its prices, spiked after the SOE was declared in March. The surge has now stopped but farmers are still producing even though the ban on exports is still in place because of the SOE.
Large egg farmers and retailers are asking the Ministry of Commerce to reconsider the ban in order to lessen the problem of oversupply. For large egg farmers, the cost to produce one egg is around 1.8-2.6 baht.
Farmers are saying that buyers and exporters are now offering around 2-2.3 baht per egg from 2.8 baht in March. Simultaneously, the ongoing drought is also leading to added water costs.
Thailand has more than 49 million hens that are producing around 41 million eggs per day. Thirty-nine million of those eggs are meant for domestic consumption, which means the remaining 3 million will continue to oversupply farmers until they can export their products again.
Milk
Dairy farmers from five provinces, led by the Dairy Cooperatives Federation of Thailand, have threatened to dump their products in protest if the government refuses to help them with oversupply.
They warned that they will start to pour their outputs down the drain on Wednesday if Tuesday’s cabinet meeting does not result in some form of compensation.
The federation president, Nairit Jamlay, said the output of milk is seasonally increasing but people are consuming less milk products and that has led to the current oversupply.
The farmers are asking the government to increase its demand by ordering more milk for public schools once the term reopens in July.
Other demands include measures to ensure buyers do not lower their orders by more than 30 per cent until the government can fund 760 million baht with no interest to support the dairy farmers.
