Comprehensive Thai media reported on August 23 that the Thai Ministry of Commerce issued new regulations on coconut import management. Coconut importers must purchase domestic coconuts in the proportion of 1:2.5 to help coconut farmers. Affected by the epidemic, the average price of coconut fell to 8.19 baht per month in August.
When the Ministry of Commerce held the first meeting of vegetable oil and oil producing plants Committee in 2021, it said that according to the total amount of coconuts purchased in Thailand from January 1 to August 6 this year, it was considered to allocate the import quota to 15 companies qualified to import coconuts, with a ratio of 1:2.5 (for every 2.5 coconuts purchased in China, one can be imported), and the total import quota was 78477 tons. In any case, the import must comply with the announcement of the Department of foreign trade.
In addition, in order to protect Thai coconut growers from the impact of large imports of coconuts from abroad, the Committee on vegetable oil and oil producing plants has decided to approve the implementation of the special safeguard measures (SSG) under the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement in 2021, using the trigger calculation principle of 311235 tons of coconuts, which is calculated based on the coconut import quantity data in the past three years (2018-2020). If the total amount of coconuts imported into Thailand exceeds the trigger amount of 311235 tons, the Customs Department will impose additional duties. If it is an import outside the quota under the WTO agreement, 72% tariff (originally 54%) will be levied. If it is an AFTA agreement, 72% tariff (originally 0%) will also be levied.
The Agricultural Economic Office estimates that the domestic coconut output this year (as of August) is 876000 tons, and the demand is the same as that of the previous year, about 1269000 tons. It is estimated that the import of coconut and its products this year is 418000 tons. Affected by the epidemic, the demand continued to slow down in the first half of the year, resulting in a downward trend in the price of coconut sold by farmers. In August this year, the average price of large coconuts sold by farmers was 8.19 baht, down from 11.91 baht in the same period last year, or 31.23%.
Source: China Agricultural Information Network
Post time: Aug-27-2021