Thailand to Introduce Tighter Control on Coconut Imports

The Commerce Ministry of Thailand is considering to reduce the period for coconut imports and introduce tighter control on importers to address the domestic coconut price slump. According to Adul Chotinisakorn, director general of the ministry’s Foreign Trade Department, the ministry is working with the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry to monitor the domestic coconut situation after local growers complained that the current price dip was caused by a flood of imported coconuts.  

According to binding tariffs from the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Thailand imports 2,317 tons of coconut a year.  The quota is now taxed at 20 per cent and the import tariff for non-quota trade is 54 per cent. Eligible importers must be juristic persons who operate factories that use coconuts as raw materials. There are no import quotas under the WTO from January to May and November to December.  But most importers use the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, which bans tariffs for coconuts processed into vegetable oil.

Last year, Thailand imported 416,124 tons of coconut worth 4.62 billion baht (USD139 million), of which 384,102 tons were from Indonesia, 15,613 tons from Vietnam, 2,864 tons from Myanmar and 13,524 tons from Malaysia. Thailand is expected to produce 860,000 tons of coconuts this year, much lower than domestic demand, which is estimated at 1.1 million tons. Therefore, Thailand is relying on imports of 241,000 tons in 2018.  In the first five months of this year, Thailand imported nearly 170,000 tons of coconut worth 1.51 billion baht, down from over 178,000 tons worth 2.10 billion bath in the same period of last year.