The ambitious goal was revealed during a meeting between Somkid and Alfred Yeung, director of the Hong Kong Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Association.

The association is the operator of Hong Kong's largest fresh fruit and vegetable market, Yao Ma Tei, which controls 70 per cent of the special administrative region's fruit and vegetable trade. It also has a network of 15 markets distributing fruit and vegetables from Yao Ma Tei to consumers.

The meeting was part of an official visit during which Somkid and Thai officials are aiming to boost shipments of fresh Thai fruit to Hong Kong and China.

Thailand exports 2,000 containers of fruit to Yao Ma Tei per year and the country ranks second to the United States in supplying fruit to the Hong Kong market. Somkid said he wants Yao Ma Tei to take more Thai exports.

However, the association's board members told him there were several problems that made an expansion of the Thai fruit trade difficult. The most critical is quality.

The Hong Hong importers at Yao Ma Tei said Thai fruit was simply not of the same standard as that from the US. Yeung also asked Somkid whether Thailand had a specific organisation with which his association's members could work, in order to find new exporters.

"We want to know more on how to find new Thai fruit exporters to deal with," he said.

Somkid gave the Hong Kong association three names: Kunyaphan Raengkhum, deputy director-general of the Export Promotion Department, Maj-General Navin Damrigan, an adviser to Somkid, and Pisanu Rienmahasarn, the Commerce Ministry deputy permanent secretary.

In addition, Somkid assigned high-ranking officials from the Agriculture Ministry to oversee the observance of good agricultural practices for fruit being exported to Hong Kong.

During his inspection of Hong Kong's Yao Ma Tei market, Somkid also visited a wholesale shop owned by a Thai fruit growing and exporting firm, Thai Hong Fruit Co Ltd, which has been exporting fruit to Hong Kong and China for two decades.

The company's chairman, Kiattisak Tusangjarearnsuttichai, said the visit of Thai government officials would enhance the ability of Thai exporters to ship more fruit to Hong Kong.

He said his company was responsible for half of the Thai fruit exported to Yao Ma Tei every year. It exports durian, pomelo, mangosteen and longan, among other fruits, to Hong Kong and China, with an export value of between Bt800 million and Bt1 billion a year.

Sasithorn Ongdee

The Nation

Hong Kong