Government Spokesperson Chai Wacharonke disclosed that Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Srettha Thavisin has a policy to promote tangible international economic cooperation through the Free Trade Area (FTA), as part of the Government’s “proactive economic diplomacy”, in a bid to attract inward foreign trade and investment, expand markets for Thai agro products, and enhance the country’s competitiveness in the global market.
Statistically, Thailand is currently ASEAN’s top and world’s 7th largest agro product exporter. The country also ranks 3rd in ASEAN and 11th in the world as exporter of processed agricultural products in 2023.
According to Ministry of Commerce’s data, Thailand’s export of agricultural products to FTA trade partners in 2023 increased by 4% with the value of USD19,563 million (73% of total exported agricultural products). The export of processed agricultural products to FTA trade partners in 2023 also increased by 2% with the value of USD15,074 million (67.3% of total exported agricultural products). Among Thailand’s FTA trade partners, China is the largest importer of Thai agricultural and processed agricultural products in 2023. The export of agro product to China last year has increased by 11%, accounting for 42% of total agricultural and processed agricultural product export. This was followed by the ASEAN market which expanded by 5%.
Exported Thai agricultural and processed agricultural products that was the most popular among FTA trade partners is rice (an increase of 92% in Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia markets), followed by coffee (an increase of 43% in Cambodia, Japan, and China), and fresh, chilled, frozen and dried fruits (an increase of 23% in China, Malaysia, and Vietnam).
The Government is now collaborating with Thai and foreign experts in working on a plan to reduce cost and increase productivity and earnings of the farmers under its policy “Market-Led, Innovation-Driven, Triple Farmers’ Income”. On February 14, 2024, Thailand Trade Representative (TTR) has met with the management of Huawei (Thailand) Company Limited and executives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to discuss utilization of innovative solutions of the Huawei Corporation to improve the agricultural sector. The new techniques would help in reducing the cost of electricity supply for small-scale farmers, creating large-scale database in agriculture and trade to initiate the latest trend-based plans, and developing “Pirunraj application” as a trading platform with the “From farm to Table” format.
According to the Government Spokesperson, the Prime Minister strives to leverage Thailand’s FTA with trade partners to draw foreign trade and investment and increase export of Thai agricultural and processed agricultural products to the global market. Innovations and trend-based market planning have also been adopted to ultimately uplift quality of life of the Thai farmers and entrepreneurs. (PRD)
