By Thai Newsroom Reporters
TRUCKLOADS OF POMELO are delivered daily from Pichit to Bangkok by the farmers themselves in sheer competition with a relatively reputed citrus fruit from an outlying area of the capital city.
Farmer Yuttana Pinonganand says the delivery of his Tha Khoi pomelo in a 350-kilometre distance between his orchard and Bangkok is literally a painstaking task under the pandemic-affected circumstances but that is far better than waiting for wholesale traders to come around and buy it at a lowered price.
Yuttana is managing a fleet of pickup trucks for home delivery of his pomelo to the customers in Bangkok and outlying areas daily. Each of those trucks carries 1.5 to 2 tons of freshly harvested fruits per trip.
The Pichit farmer realises he is virtually trespassing the long-occupied turf of competitors from Nakhon Chaisri district of Nakhon Pathom whose pomelo has been far better known and accustomed to the Bangkokians.
Given purchase orders placed online, Yuttana sees to it that the volume of his truck-laden pomelo is worth the trip to Bangkok on one condition – each customer buys at least five fruits for 400 baht.
The farmer assures the price for his sweet and sour citrus fruit is competitive against those from Nakhon Chaisri and elsewhere around the perimeters of Bangkok.
Yuttana maintains that the quality and taste of his Pichit pomelo are second to none and its price is so competitive, if not less expensive than its rivals. Though the farmer is indeed operating at loss due to the fuel cost for his trucks, he has opted to get some hard-earned cash from home delivery of his crops rather than to leave them unsold after harvest without wholesale dealers coming around in due time.
Nonetheless, Yuttana is not the only one who has made up his mind to directly deliver farm goods to Bangkok and nearby areas.
Farmer Prakhong Thapkaew has managed to have his siblings and friends in Bangkok find retail vendors in the capital city where he could deliver his pomelo from Pichit though most may never have tried it before.
Prakhong comments it is time all farmers concurrently turned to be vendors as the present circumstances have obviously prompted them to survive businesswise.
A good quality of the pomelo is the fact that it remains edibly fresh and unrotten for several weeks after harvest, thus encouraging the customers to buy several fruits at a time.
A Pichit pomelo fruit is selling for an average of 80 baht, compared to 100 baht-plus for one of its famous rival from Nakhon Chaisri.
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Top: A pomelo orchard in Phichit. Photo: Thai TV Channel 8
Home Page: Delicious Phichit pomelo.
