BANGKOK, 24 May 2011 – The Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) has forecast an upward trend of fruit prices this year due to shrinking production caused by the La Niña phenomenon.
Based on the working committee’s survey on the cultivation of economic fruits across the country, Deputy Secretary-General and Spokesperson of the OAE Nareenat Roonnaphai indicated that the overall yield of fruits was on the decline. She explained that the unusually high amount of rainfall in the southern region this year as an effect of La Niña in combination with farmers’ lack of capital and labor had weighed down the production of local fruits by 44 percent to 306,352 tons, which is the lowest amount in ten years.
Meanwhile, the production of lychee in the North has been affected by an inconsistent winter with its production down to 32,049 tons, or a drop of 17 percent from last year.
The production shrinkage has been found in most types of fruits in Thailand this year and is expected to push up their prices accordingly.
