Winter 2022

>>Download<< PDF Edition Winter 2022

With reports on severe floodings in several provinces of Thailand, there are concerns of more tropical monsoons as we are still in the rainy season. Although the accumulative rainfall may be less than previous year, each monsoon system brought about more severity of much and harder rainfall. It has been disrupting harvest as roads are cut off and soil is too soft to enter plantations, and hence, farmers may have lost some harvest in the East region.

The tropical rain would start to move from the North to the South. We expect to see moderate rainfall in Rayong area, but more toward the West region. Prachuab Kirikhan, the largest pineapple growing area, has received more rainfall than previous years. We are monitoring the water level of Pranburi Dam, at currently 60%. Should water rise to 90% and above, there would be risks for flooding farms as in the past.

Canneries have started winter pack in September with the supply around 2,000 tons/day and poor quality that yield less for choice grade. The rainfall in harvesting area has contributed to the rise of nitrate in fruits, especially in the Western region. Fruit price has risen to 8.50 THB/kg compared to average 6.50 THB/kg for the summer crop. We expect the supply to increase to the level of 4,000 tons/day after middle of October and the price to soften.

Oil price has jumped recently to near USD 100/barrel on the news of oil production cut down by OPEC. We are afraid that this would impact prices of our ingredients and packaging for this quarter and into the 1st quarter 2023.

Quantity of fruit processed for January – September 2022 totaled to 0.87 million tons. The expectation for the last quarter is 0.37 million tons. SAICO forecast the supply of pineapple fruit for 2023 likely to be around the same volume of 2022 to be 1.45 million +/- 5%.

October 9, 2022