Thai fruit the sweet spot for exports, as May sales soar 128% over April
Thailand’s fruit exports in May soared 128% month on month to US$1.4 billion, the Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) reported on Friday, predicting that the trend would continue for several months
Total exports in May were valued at $26.21 billion, increasing 7.2% over the previous month and was the highest in 14 months, with main contributions coming from agricultural products, TPSO director-general Poonpong Naiyanapakorn said.
“May is the month when several crops bear fruits or become harvestable,” he said. “Another supporting factor is the fast recovery of the global manufacturing sector that has driven up the demand for raw materials, as can be seen from the rising trend of the global purchasing managers’ index.”
In May, Thailand exported fresh, frozen, and dried fruits worth $1.4 billion to the global markets, including key markets China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Japan. The Chinese market alone saw fruit exports increasing by 142.4% month on month, said Poonpong.
Fruit exports in the first five months of 2024 expanded 5% compared to the same period of the previous year, to $3.28 billion. The most popular Thai fruits in overseas markets included durians (valued at 83.05 billion baht, up 14% year on year), mangosteens (9.9 billion baht, up 24.2% YoY), longans (6.36 billion baht, up 31.3% YoY), and mangoes (3.12 billion baht, up 67.4% YoY).
“China is the biggest buyer of fresh durians, valued at $1.13 billion, up 221% over the previous month,” said Poonpong. “We expect the trend to continue for several months, as later this year more durian output from the southern region will start hitting the markets.
The TPSO estimated that Thailand’s total fruit output this year would reach 6.76 million tonnes, up 2% – 110,000 tonnes – YoY. Of this output, 26% – 1.76 million tonnes – will be sold to domestic markets as fresh fruits (1.29 million tonnes) and processed fruits (470,000 tonnes).
The remaining 74% – 5.01 million tonnes – will be exported as fresh fruit (3.11 million tonnes) and processed fruit (1.9 million tonnes).
