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General
Problems
Production problems
1. Price: Baby corn farmers always face a price
drop. This is because of produce distribution through
middlemen. They always offer low and unexpected prices.
Therefore, farmers cannot rest assured on prices. Worry
about prices and markets results in uncertainty of produce
volume.
2. Quality: Quality of baby corn often fails to
reach factory standards because farmers frequently use
unqualified seeds and do not care for the plant well.
3. Watering: Baby corn is a water-dependent plant.
If it does not rain according to seasons, farmers have
to find other water sources such as irrigation. But if
it is not enough, baby corn production will suffer negative
impacts from that. Some farmers may give up growing baby
corn, or may suspend the cultivation for a while. This
results in movements of prices and affects supply to markets.
Local Market
1. Dividing: This is one of significant problems
in baby corn trade. Factories are always strict about
quality of raw materials. If they find unqualified corn
ears, they will leave them out and subtract the weight
of defective baby corn from the total weight of baby
corn offered by middlemen for sale. If the number of
defective baby corn is huge, they will lose considerable
profits. However, middlemen or produce collectors usually
manage to get compensation pay from farmers, claiming
that some of produce they buy is low in quality and
cannot be accepted by factories. In consequence, all
this burden rests on baby corn cultivators, who already
suffer the low price of baby corn. Sometimes, the cultivators
run out of morale in growing the plant despite high
demand from markets and processing plants.
2. Delayed payment from factories: Sometimes,
it takes about 2-3 months for factories to pay money
middlemen. Then, they have to postpone payment farmers
when buying produce. This leads the farmers to a lack
of capital for the next planting round. They have to
borrow money from many sources to carry on with baby
corn cultivation. Therefore, they have to bear the burden
of paying high interest rates.
Export
Problems
1. Local competition: There is a lot of competition
in terms of price cutting among local manufacturers
due to a bright trend of canned baby corn import demand.
It is getting higher every year. Some exporters offer
prices lower than production costs so that they can
seize more market shares from old exporters. Other exporters
have to reduce product prices accordingly to remain
competitive. Inevitably, prices, at which farmers sell
their produce, weaken.
2. Competition with foreign producers: Especially
Taiwan, one of Thailand's important competitors. Even
though Thailand has very low-price products, those from
Taiwan can trade in even lower prices than Thailand's.
This is because of higher production costs in Thailand
particularly in the cost of canning, and also low efficiency
of production. These factors make Thailand's market
share smaller than Taiwan.
3. Inadequate gross tonnage: Both canned baby
corn and fresh baby corn exports always face no availability
of room in airplanes. Also, the cost for transporting
goods in this way is very high. This is because most
airline companies do not favor transportation of fruits
and vegetables even though there is high demand from
foreign countries. This makes Thai exporters lose opportunities
to reach more markets worldwide. Moreover, many fresh
products often decay while awaiting shipping at airports.
It can be said that considerable income is lost each
year.
4. Failing to reach standards: Both Thai canned
baby corn and fresh baby corn do not meet world standards
yet. Thai baby corn exports are often found to be broken,
blended with corn silk, and have no consistency in sizes.
Some are too big and some too old. Besides, the packaging,
especially that of fresh baby corn, does not meet standards
too.
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