Comments on: A flood of Chinese garlic?

By: Mekong navigation and the great garlic puzzle

Mekong navigation and the great garlic puzzle — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:11:05 +0000

[...] posts (here and here) I expressed some scepticism about the view that Chinese imports under the trade [...]

By: Communist garlic threatents Thai culture

Communist garlic threatents Thai culture — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:24:58 +0000

[...] New Mandala readers may know that I have a keen interest in garlic. I have previously blogged about the overstated impacts of the agricultural trade [...]

By: M Lardprao

M Lardprao — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:15:31 +0000

Thanks Bangkok Pundit and I did drop in your website to check on trade data. Maybe an update on your data to year 2006 is due . . .

Durian exports shooting up 21,850 per cent must have been because Thailand had not shipped this fruit to China in quantity before.

But trade with China deserves special scrutiny because the Chinese will dump their goods, agricultural or industrial, given the chance. Especially on industrial goods, Thailand is at special risk against being overwhelmed by Chinese imports now that WTO ‘free trade’ rules are rapidly getting into effect. Soft industrial goods like Thai textiles are already staggering from the Chinese onslaught . . whether at much fought export markets of USA, Europe and Japan, but ominously even in Thailand’s own domestic yard where it seems the Thai weaver can no longer compete against an imported Chinese fabric. Housing items like ceramic tiles are also feeling the flood of cheap Chinese ‘granitos’ . . . . there are more Chinese industrial goods to scare the pants of every industrial Thai worker.

By: Bangkok Pundit

Bangkok Pundit — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:27:48 +0000

M. Lardprao: See my post which Andrew graciously linked to. Here is an excerpt:

Thailand actually has a trade surplus with China in the fruit and vegetable trade and that surplus has been increasing since the bilateral trade agreement came into force. The surplus for the first 8 months of 2005 stood at 8.6 billion baht, up 42.1 percent from the same period last year. The Nation on 9 November 2004 says that while Thailand has imported more garlic and onions from China, Thailand has also made its own gains since the bilateral trade agreement come into force as “fresh longan exports had increased 986 per cent, durian had exploded by 21,850 per cent, mangosteen jumped 1,911 per cent and mango surged 150 per cent”.

By: M. Lardprao

M. Lardprao — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:17:15 +0000

Purely from the consumer’s sense, the surge of Chinese fruits imports clearly kept prices of Thai fruits from going up. According to my wife, nearly every fruit, Chinese or Thai, are priced at Baht 25/kilo and Chinese apples (crunchy sweet too!) are even cheaper than Thai bananas or papayas.

What I would like to know is whether the trade pact with China had any favorable impact on certain fruits (like durians, mangosteens or rambutans) going from Thailand to China. Only by looking at how the trade traffic went both ways Thailand to China and vice-versa, can we begin to appreciate whether the Thailand-China Agricultural Trade Agreement had been favorably one-way China’s way.

Thai fruit farmers will have to learn how to compete and adapt . . . or they could unite the French way and block any agricultural import that would threaten their farm income and China is their Big Enemy, anyone can see that.