Lime-growers in Kamphaeng Phet form gun-toting squad to prevent theft

Residents of Moo 5 village in Tambon Nikhom Thung Pho Thalay of Kamphaeng Phet’s Muang district, said they had to protect their lime gardens with rifles because thieves would sneak in to steal limes whenever they lowered their guard.

Lime is considered an indispensable ingredient in a Thai kitchen. The fruit is widely used for making somtam and Thais like to squeeze lime juice in fish sauce for eating with their rice.

Retail prices of lime in Bangkok and major provinces have reportedly skyrocketed to 12 baht per fruit. The high price of lime has forced many street vendors to halt selling lime juice for now.

Thut Khammek, 59, head of the Moo 5 village, told The Nation that he and farmer friends who have connected gardens, had to form their own patrol units to guard their gardens with rifles.

Thut said whenever gardeners left to deliver lime fruits, thieves would sneak in and steal the fruits.

He said each theft would take just 10 minutes because a thief would quickly pluck the fruit, load it in a bag and get away with 2,000 baht worth of limes.

Thut said he has 7 rai (1.12 hectare) of lime gardens and this year he has made five or six harvests, earning several hundreds of thousands of baht.

Yupin Sukrak, 56, a vendor at the Kamphaeng Phet main market, said a big lime was selling at 7 baht a piece and vendors from other provinces came to buy them for reselling at 12 baht.

She said the price of lime this year was the highest in four years. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the prices were very low.

Yupin said she learned from gardeners in her Moo 6 village of Tambon Thung Pho Thalay, that thieves had also gone to her village to to steal lime.

Yupin said very small-sized limes, which gardeners normally discarded, could also sell at 2 baht a piece.