Thai food hit by garlic crisis
Imported varieties have replaced local ones, and the taste is just not the same

BANGKOK: -- Bad news if you are a big fan of Thai food and its traditional tastes: it might be harder to find in future.

Your favourite dishes will still be available, but the traditional taste you are used to might not. The problem is not restaurants or chefs. It is all about the quality of garlic, an important ingredient in much of the cuisine.

"People today have fewer and fewer choices to eat garlic grown in Thailand, and this significantly affects food's taste. One third of all garlic available here is no longer grown in Thailand but imported - a lot of it from China," a study said.

"Thai-Chinese FTA: Impacts on Thai Society" was conducted over the past six months by researchers led by Kasetsart University's Dr Detcharat Sukkamnerd.

The Health Policy Foundation and FTA Watch group assisted.

"Thai garlic is better in taste and medicinal properties, such as preventing cancer. Consumers want to buy Thai garlic. But it is very difficult today," explained Kingkorn Narinthornkul na Ayudhaya of FTA Watch.

"Most garlic sold today is a mix of local and imported, due to the price factor. Thai garlic is significantly more expensive than that from China. Garlic from China is lower in quality of taste and medicinal properties, despite the larger cloves," she said.

"Garlic from Cambodia, Laos, Burma and some parts of China is similar in size to Thailand, so it's difficult for consumers to tell the difference. The point is, imported garlic is a lot cheaper than local garlic," she said.

Most restaurants and processed-food manufacturers - especially chilli-paste makers - are using imported garlic because it is cheaper and easier to find, Kingkorn said.

"The problem is that consumers have much fewer choices due to the trade pact Thailand signed with China four years ago," she said.

Thailand grows about 100,000 tonnes of garlic a year, mainly in the North, especially Chiang Mai, Lamphun and Mae Hong Son. It is a Bt1-billion-a-year industry. Most is for domestic consumption.

Since 2003, Chinese garlic quotas have been imported with no tariffs under the Thai-Chinese free-trade agreement. Garlic imported beyond the quotas is taxed at 53 per cent.

"From our study, the impact is beyond expectations, especially for consumers, farmers and local agricultural businesses," Kingkorn said.

The flood of cheap garlic into Thailand has harmed garlic farmers because they cannot sell their produce for more than Bt50 a kilogram like before. Many have quit altogether. The area planted with garlic has shrunk considerably, according to Kingkorn.

From 2004 to 2007, the area of garlic plantation dropped from 98,000 rai to 76,000 rai, and production dropped from 96,000 tonnes to 75,000 tonnes.

The impact on the local garlic trading system is worse, Detcharat said.

"In the past, farmers and local businessmen bargained for the right price, depending on season. Now the pricing is in the hands of a few big importers," Detcharat said.

"This threatens food security and weakens local farmers and traders ... millions of people," Kingkorn added.

The study cites the case of a garlic farmer in Chiang Mai's Chaiya Prakan district, Kesorn Srisa, who said her life had been shaken.

"Garlic is very important to my family. It is like cash to us, while rice is for daily food. I farmed garlic for decades. We survived despite its fluctuating price," she said.

Kingkorn said farmers were trying to improve garlic yields by using fertilisers and chemicals, but this affected quality.

"It is the result of signing a free-trade agreement without domestic readiness. We warned the government before, but it did not listen," Detcharat said.

Similar situations affect fruit and vegetable growers, the study said.

It was said more imported fruit would give consumers more choice, and people would eat more fruit, Detcharat said. This has been found not to be the case.

"Consumers just switched from local fruit to cheaper imported fruit. Two problems lie in this case, one is safety and the other is the impact on local farmers," he said.

"Thai fruit exported to China is safe and is checked and documented. On the contrary, Chinese products are less strictly checked; just a few samples. It makes me doubt the safety of Chinese products in Thailand," he added.

Consumers need to be aware of this, Detcharat said.

He demanded a review of the Thai-China agreement to evaluate the impact of the trade deal. He said future agreements should be studied more thoroughly.

"On a practical level, we found many claims of free-trade supporters - such as better prices for local farmers - not to be true," Detcharat said. "In fact, we found Chinese importers control the market and set the price. Many longan farmers have switched to other crops due to unbearable prices."

-- The Nation 2008-03-02

so the next time you get bad food in a restaurant they can blame it on the imported garlic

"Garlic from Cambodia, Laos, Burma and some parts of China is similar in size to Thailand, so it's difficult for consumers to tell the difference. The point is, imported garlic is a lot cheaper than local garlic," she said.


How is this?
As far as I know thai farm workers aren't overpaid yet. So, where this lots of extra cost coming from then?

It's just not Thailand that's having this problem , it's worldwide. Was reading an article in some magazine last flight and chefs in the USA, Canada & France were moaning over how hard it is to find produce during certain seasons. Garlic from china was described as having qualities along the lines of cardboard etc. I've noticed it too, but if you go into Carrefour all you can get is Chinese garlic. And I don't think that local "farmers" markets supply Thai garlic because most of those stalls are buying from large distributors that are importing their produce from China.

On a happier note, Thailand has a few pilot organic farming projects and you can actually get local lettuce varieties in some supermarkets that used to be imported from China.The agricculture department is trying and I have to give them credit for that.

Same problem in Australia, the supermarkets discovered that after a bit of publicity that the customers were willing to pay more for the local product because it tasted better, and inspite of the difference in price it cost you less as you needed to use less to get the correct taste.

This article is the start of a similar campaign. Hopefully the regular users will notice and ask for the local product. It aint as pretty (not bleached) and it tastes better.

Jeeeesus. First it was the inflation of the baht. Then it was the return of Thaksin. And now the garlic is a goner. Beam me up Scotty. I'm outta here.

Strange, maybe it's just northern Thailand, but up here all we get is local garlic in the markets. Perhaps it's just supermarkets?

"Globalisation" strikes again.

But, at work here, there are also the effects of communications and shipping being so much faster than previously.

In an earlier age, the imports due to a new FTA would have arrived more slowly and in more-slowly-increasing volume. So the local producers of a higher-value variety of the product would have had time to explain that their product was worth more and so to keep their more affluent customers.

An example would be the advent of chill-shipped Australian beef arriving on the British market, back in Queen Victoria's time. The producers of top-quality British beef generally held their customers and poorer people who hadn't been able to afford meat benefited from the availability of the new, slightly-lower-quality, but greatly-lower-priced imports.

The old adage: "Act in haste, and you may repent at leisure" is apposite here.

It is tempting to quote another old adage: "Fools rush in where angels gently tread"; but I fear that it was greed and unfairly-priveleged access to the machinery of government that were in play, rather than foolishness, since the warnings were sounded, but ineffective.

For 'sabaijai', re post #7:

You could be reporting an effect of shipping and distribution costs having started rising after the price of oil passed its minimum and started upward.

Presumably the Chinese imports come by sea and don't then have to travel far to the Bangkok markets. However the additional cost of sending them North may then make the Chinese garlic uncompetitive at your local market.

There's a bloke called Kunstler who reckons that the historians of the future will look back at life in America and see Walmart as having only been a temporary phenomenon that could only occur for the few decades when oil could be supplied very cheaply, and those days are now passing. If it applies to Walmart, it will apply to Carrefour, too.

I like chinese garlic

And you certainly like too the heavy metals and the chemicals provided by the chinese garlic.


As a good french, I can only hate the chinese garlic, that has no taste. We have real one, strong and spicy, in the south of France, where garlic is broadly used in cocking.

Therefore I support the "garlic campaign" in Thailand. We need to fight back !

This post has been edited by cclub75: 2008-03-02 14:33:44

Apart from doing that with it ... do you ever eat it ?

Naka.

If Chinese garlic has less taste/odour, than local Thai garlic, does that mean that it is also less-effective against vampires ? ! This is therefore good news for Thai vampires !

Note that Thai produce exported to China is checked for safety but that imported Chinese produce is not. That is why consumers are supposed to be worried well they should be more worried about Thai produce consumed in Thailand.

...and why would that be the case?

That's a good one.

I made of course a mistake : it was "cooking" not ... "cocking". Sorry for the unintentional laugh.

what about artifical garlic flavored powder.

I am not much of a garlic fan, so it doesn't make much difference to me where it comes from.

I do have trouble understanding why they wouldn't advertise locally grown produce, however, since this can be an affective marketing tool, regardless of the price.

Sound to BAD to be true, need to check this one out for myself. :

Some years ago i asked this question of a Canadian fruit grower , he said"It costs more to grow in Canada " My response " Am American and a Canadian plant apple trees on thier farm , it rains and the sun shines in both countries , fruit finaly grows on both the American and Canadian trees , people pick the fruit and you offer it for sell ouside your farms , why is yours more expensive ? " "Well , i uh "" . Then it costs the American farmer to send it to Canada , who is trying to get rich quick ? I think this also applies to Thai garlic growers , drop the price and the Chinese will be gone .

It's not that simple. Wages and other costs in addition to regulations might be more favourable in some other part of the world. I find it not hard to believe that growing (Thai) garlic in Thailand is more expensive than getting it from China. What governments ought to do is supply consumers with proper information. People are quite capable of making their own decisions. But then again, that would all come down to the story about proper education and governments that genuinely care for their people... (sigh)

Answer in the article :


This is a classic quality vs quantity battle... And as usually, quantity wins...

Same old-same old , how can i get rich quick ? In the long run , quality will and often does , overcome quantity , North Americans are already realizing this and paying more for organic foods , nutrition=health=quality of life=longevity in a healthy way .

Us poor rural villagers always have the best garlic, and peppers, and eggplant, and lettuce, and corn, and squash, and tomatoes, and ...and...and...and...

Local organic produce is best!!!! Words to live by.

Chownah

What's next ? No more thai Chili peppers, maybe switching to jalapenos!!!

authentic Thai food is the most delicious food in the world, in my opinion !!!