Thailand’s deputy commerce minister Suriya Lapwisuthisin believes that his bold move to invite over 100 fruit importers from 23 major countries to hold direct talks with Thai exporters and growers will help relieve this year's fruit glut.

Although a small number of the company representatives had travelled from the US, Europe and Africa, the focus of the meeting was clearly on Asia, with 43 companies from China and 16 from Bangladesh alone.

The meeting enabled the foreign importers to place orders for fresh Thai lychees and longans prior to the harvesting season.

Suriya said that Thailand would be able to export at least 20,000 tonnes of its estimated 70,000t lychee crop this year, and half of its 200,000t longan crop.

While in previous years Thailand has often been faced with a glut of fruits, the deputy commerce minister said that yesterday's talks would help reduce this, while also helping to achieve export talks.

The ministry of commerce has asked the country’s ministry of agriculture and co-operatives to work with the import-export and agricultural sectors to set prices for lychees and longans this year.

Last year exports of the two fruits earned Thailand around US$60 million, up 35 per cent from the previous year. This year the hope is that export figures for the two fruits will grow by 50 per cent.

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