Fresh Longan Marketing and Reference Market: A Case of Longan Grown in Northern Thailand

Longan plays an important role in developing sustainable production systems for the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia. It is a fruit grown at higher altitudes, mostly inhabited by poor farmers and ethnic minorities. In Thailand, 95% of an overall production area of 98 thousand ha is concentrated in the north, yielding approximately 212 thousand tons of longan in 2003. Despite its importance as the income source of northern growers, however, a short harvesting season and its highly perishable nature create a large, concentrated flow of supply to the market, depressing farm prices and farmers’ income. Despite existing market links between production areas and consumers throughout the country, the influence of the central wholesale market in Bangkok plays a major role in dominating the wholesale markets in production areas. This paper sets out to examine the integration between wholesale markets in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Focusing on price differences and variations, a daily recorded price of Edoor variety, grade Jumbo longan in both markets between 16th July and 31st August 2002 was employed in this study. Following the introduction, the second section briefly reviews the marketing flow of longan grown in the north. The third section discusses price fluctuations in the two markets and marketing margins.