Fruit & vegetables

Fruit and vegetables have become important foods in the Thai diet. Consumption has gradually increased over the past few years.

All provinces are able to grow some fruits and vegetables.
Because of the climatic zones across Thailand, many types of fruit are grown.
From the wide range of fruits grown in Thailand, only 10 varieties are of major importance - pineapple, durian, longan, mangosteen, pomelo, mango, rambutan, papaya, lychee and tangerine.
Less economically important fruits include - santol, rose apple, sugar apple, jujube, marian plum, guava, longkong, langsat, young coconut, tamarind, sala, jack fruit, lime, grape and banana.
A number of these fruits are non-seasonal - banana, guava, young coconut, papaya, jackfruit and pineapple.
Fruit growing is not new to Thailand, for generations they have been grown by farmers in their backyards.
With the advent of commercialization, managed orchards have appeared as have more robust, higher yielding varieties.
Fruit exports have become an increasingly important source of revenue.
Internationally, Thailand is the leading world exporter of pineapple, durian, longan, mangosteen and longkong.
Fruit exports from Thailand are either fresh, frozen or processed (usually canned).
Thailand has a competitive edge over its neighbors for fresh fruit exports, principally because of higher quality fruit. This has helped Thailand to maintain a competitive edge over cheaper producing regions such as China.
Approximately 75% of the world exports of major tropical fresh fruits originate from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Pakistan and India. The main markets are Hong Kong and Singapore.
There is a growing world demand for processed fruit products, especially canned fruits.
Niche markets are developing for organically produced tropical fruits - major markets Europe, US and Japan. Total market share is relatively small (0.5 - 2.5%), but this sector is growing rapidly.
Thailand's tropical fruit production in 1996 was 43 million tons; mangoes comprised approximately 44% or 19 million tons.
Domestic consumption of fruit is 90% of total production, 80% is consumed fresh, 10% for industrial processing. The other 10% is exported mostly in canned production.
The total quantity of the Thai fruit exports in 1995 was about 941,000 tons, about 62.7% of the total world volume traded, valued at Bt 19.5 billion ($US 778 million).

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