The civil unrest gripping Thailand has taken a heavy toll on fresh produce sales, according to leading importers and retailers interviewed by Fruitnet.com.
The government said yesterday it had mostly restored order to Bangkok after violence spread across the capital on Wednesday in the wake of the surrender of several key red-shirt leaders.
Rioters in retreat set fire to 36 buildings across Bangkok, including banks, department stores and hotels, with some of them sustaining massive damage. CentralWorld shopping mall, one of South East Asia’s largest shopping centres which is home to the high-end Central Food Hall and other key food retail outlets, came crashing down, with the mall’s developers reportedly still evaluating the damage and losses.
All the fires have now been extinguished and a night-time curfew remains in place on the city in a bit to prevent a resurgence of the unrest. But the violence and damage to retail outlets and shopping malls only compounds woes for the country’s fresh produce trade whose sales have already been badly hit by the unrest over the past two months.
“Business into Thailand is down significantly and has been over the last eight weeks,” confirmed Craig Stauffer, CEO of Vanguard International, which supplies this market with imported fruit from a range of global sources. “Some of this is a normal annual downturn since the Thais are focused on consuming their local fruits that are now in peak production, such as durian and mangosteen, but much of it is also due to imported fruit consumption being driven down even further since people are staying hunkered down at home, and not going to eat out as much.”
Woradech Chaiworapoj of leading fruit importer Thongchai Intertrading estimates that sales volumes have fallen by more than 50 per cent since the Songkran festival, which fell on 13-16 April.
“The political unrest in Bangkok and some of the provinces has created a lot of fear among buyers. The customers from other provinces don’t come to Talad Thai market (in Bangkok) because they can’t sell the fruits out,” he said. “Some of the roads to the north and northeast have also been blocked by protestors.”
Consumers have been reining in their spending, affecting demand for imported fruit, according to Mr Chaiworapoj. “The end consumers are buying daily essentials instead of fresh fruits,” he said.
Johnathan Sutton of Tesco, one of the nation’s leading food retailers, also confirmed that sales have been affected by the unrest. “We are not seeing too much impact on sourcing, but consumer numbers are down as they are staying at home and shopping more locally at the moment,” he noted. “We have also closed some stores near to the protestors’ sites.”
Several retail operations were affected by the widespread looting and arson that broke out in the wake of the surrender of key red-shirt leaders on Wednesday, especially those at the CentralWorld plaza, whose Zen Department Store is totally grounded after the structure collapsed.
CentralWorld is home to one of Central Food Retail’s upmarket department stores, but all outlets of the chain nationwide, except those in Chon Buri and Pattaya, were closed on Thursday, according to the Bangkok Post.
Center One, another major shopping mall, was also torched by protestors, while hypermarket chain Big C Supercenter said in a statement that it was still assessing the damage from the fire at its Ratchadamri outlet.
CP All, which operates the 7-Eleven Convenience store chain, reported that less than 10 per cent of its stores in the capital had been hit by the violence.
Security is being stepped up at a number of Bangkok’s large retail complexes, which are among the targets of the errant protestors.
