The government looks set to organise 63 activities to boost fruit exports next year with the aim of generating not less than 2.37 billion baht in revenue in 2022.
According to Phusit Ratanakul Sereroengrit, director-general of the International Trade Promotion Department, 63 activities covering Thai fruits sales promotion events both through online business matching and hybrid selling through trade fairs and online platforms have been planned.
The department aims to organise 31 "Thai Fruit Golden Months" -- Thai fruit fairs held in China's key provinces including Shanghai, Nanjing, Qingdao, Dalian, Nanning, Guiyang, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Xiangyang, Xiamen, Nanchang and Kunming.
In addition, the department will also team up with importers and supermarkets in the US, the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Kenya, Hong Kong and Taiwan to promote the consumption of Thai fruit.
The ministry has also vowed to come up with more active public relations to promote Thai fruit consumption both domestically and overseas in five languages comprising Thai, English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Meanwhile, the department will also educate farmers about online trading and basic export courses, while provincial commercial officials and Thai commercial ambassadors overseas will be assigned to help enable farmers to export their products.
Despite the pandemic, Thailand's fresh fruit export prospects remain promising this year as the appetite worldwide for Thai fruit is strong, particularly in China, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
According to the Commerce Ministry, Thailand's frozen and processed fruit exports brought in 131 billion baht in the first seven months this year, an increase of 48.3% over the corresponding period of 2020.
The robust export growth was attributed partly to a policy delegated by Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, who assigned commercial ambassadors in foreign countries the role of salesmen.
In addition, there were online business matching events between foreign importers and Thai fruit traders, in-store promotional activities at leading department stores and key markets in foreign countries, and sales promotion activities on global online platforms such as BigBasket of India and Tmall in China.
Propelled by soaring exports in the first seven months of 2021, Mr Jurin himself recently set his sights on raising fruit shipments this year to 180 billion baht, representing a growth of more than 30% for the whole year.
