News

WINTER CROP 2010
4th release

The winter crop production has started in September with quantity less than expected.  The average tonnage available for production was about 3,800 – 4,000 tons per day.  All factories that have started production were running at low production utilization rate. 

For October – December 2010, it is expected that the volume would be approximately 450,000 tons available for processing and fresh consumption.  Despite the good rainy season, the supply is expected only to increase from the 2nd half of November.  The supply in October will still be tight and not sufficient for all factories, at the estimate volume of approximately 3,500 tons/day. 

The estimate volume for the year 2010 will expected to be about 1.7 million tons.  However, this will be subject to the available of rain in the Southwest region of Petchburi and Prachuab Kirikhan.  While there has been rainfalls in the North and Central plain of Thailand that has caused flooding in some areas, the rainfalls in the main growing area in Southwest is not widespread.  The water level in the reservoir is lower than normal.  Should the amount of rainfall in October be less than normal, this could affect the winter harvest.

Another major factor affecting the production cost other than the fruit and tinplate  is the strong exchange rate of THB/USD.  While the fruit price and tinplate price may remain stable or even decreasing, the THB has gained approximately 10% since the beginning of 2010 at the time of this report.  Because of the strong appreciation in the recent weeks, the tendency of THB is strengthening toward 29 THB/USD.  Effectively, this increases cost of these 2 major components in the same proportion.

The Thai Food Processors’ Association
October 4, 2010