Minister pushes online sales of farm produce
The Ministry of Agricultural and Cooperatives plans to promote online sales of Thai agricultural produce through collaboration with e-commerce platforms, such as Lazada and Shopee, said minister Chalermchai Srion.
“Preliminarily, Lazada has accepted our proposal ” he said. “We need standardised produce and have selected farmers from community enterprises, agricultural cooperatives or agricultural promotion programme to participate ".
The minister said that there were around 175 farmers seeking to be listed on the opening day( March 4).
The ministry and related agencies will instruct interested farmers on ways to become professional online traders, he said.
“Online sales have the advantage of doing away with the middleman and its associated problems, such as low return and rotten products” the minister said.
Chalermchai also explained that online trade would encourage Thai farmers to improve their operation and quality of their produce.
The minister expects farmers’ revenue to increase by at least 30 per cent through the initiative.
