As pineapple farmers continue to flood the market and push prices for their crop through the floor, Banglamung District continues to prop them up.
Chonburi Deputy Gov. Thammasak Rattanathanya was on hand Dec. 18 for another last-ditch market to bail out growers in front of the Banglamung office. The Dec. 15-24 market promoted sales of Sriracha pineapples, a popular variety rich in juice and meat grown in Chonburi and Rayong. Two similar campaigns have been run in the past year.
Pineapple farmers nationwide have struggled all year as prices for the country’s signature fruit have plummeted due to oversupply. Many farmers have been unable to sell their crops, leading many to donate them to animal farms or drop them in the jungle for wild animals.
Rayong and Chonburi are the fourth- and fifth-largest pineapple-growing provinces in the country, respectively.
Thammasak said Chonburi has 23,580 rai of pineapple farms that produced 144,144 tons this year. But farmers have ignored government directives to cut back on their growing and have caused the problems they now suffer.
Preamanee Subchokechai, director of the Chonburi Provincial Commerce Department said officials have turned to processing factories, ordering them to scale back production to arrest the price fall.
