Despite the impact of the world economic crisis, “the situation for Thai longan fruit in China is currently fine, with very high levels of demand,” reports Mr Suwanchai Chavanchankij, Managing Director of Siam Jumbo, an exporting company specialised in fresh tropical Thai fruits and vegetables, shipping mainly to southern provinces, like Guangzhou, as well as the east, namely Shanghai and Beijing.Besides this high Chinese demand, especially during the New Year’s festival in February, another advantage for longan fruit producers in Thailand is the fact that production is available all year round, although conversely, “China’s high demand has also pushed export prices up by 40-50% over the past 5-6 years, which means Thai domestic consumption is quite low. Some imported fruits are in fact cheaper than the local fruit,” affirms Mr Chavanchankij.
In global terms, the total volume marketed by Thailand reached 400,000 tonnes this year, which still fails to cover all demand; of this, Siam Jumbo accounts for a 5-10% market share. In this context, Siam Jumbo tries to stand out in terms of quality, since their customers are mostly concerned about quality and not so much on price.
Siam Jumbo concentrates on delivering a premium quality, and to this end, they focus more efforts on logistics, delivering directly to retail outlets, and looking after the sweetness. Siam also work closely with their agricultural department too.
Mr Chavanchankij believes in this strategy, since he is aware that “as the number of Thai logan fruit exporters increases, the market situation is also bound to become tougher.”
For more information:
Suwanchai Chavanchankij
Siam Jumbo
Tel 00668-3188-7006, 1863-6066
Email siamjumbo@gmail.com