BANGKOK: The cross-border trade of agricultural commodities and foods between Thailand and its four neighboring countries has a tendency to grow in both value and volume thanks to the on-going regional collaboration in reducing trade barriers.
The optimism came from Mr.Pisan Pongsapitch, Deputy Secretary-General of the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards (ACFS).
He said that major Thai exports to Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia are vegetables, sugar, and chicken and pork meat. Vice versa, Thailand has imported beans, corn for animal feed and shrimp. The combined value of bilateral trade between Thailand and those countries is worth around 100,000 million baht and is expected to increase in the future.
Thailand is exporting food and agricultural products worth altogether one trillion baht to the world market, one-fourth of which is from its sales to the nine other ASEAN members, making the regional bloc Thailand’s largest trading partner in terms of these products.
The Secretary-General also said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives is prepared for the growing trade activities across the border by integrating the work of the Quarantine stations for plants, animals and aquatic animals. These three quarantine stations are now working closely via the Internet in order to boost the efficiency of commodity inspection along the border
