BANGKOK, THAILAND – Thai authorities investigated 15 China-linked companies in the fragrant coconut sector amid collapsing export prices and mounting pressure on farmers.
Investigations into alleged front companies
Poonpong Naiyanapakorn, director-general of the Department of Business Development in the Ministry of Commerce, announced the probe after a meeting with ten other agencies on the pricing and market crisis.
Officials focused on corporate structures through which foreign investors could allegedly use Thai shareholders and directors to formally circumvent rules and secure control over parts of the supply chain.
Where the 15 companies were based
Authorities classified 15 companies as high-risk, including 11 in Ratchaburi and one each in Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani, Samut Sakhon and Bangkok.
Investigators also identified ten Thai nationals suspected of acting as shareholders or directors on behalf of others, with some companies operating for five to six years while others had been founded only recently.
Legal penalties and investigating agencies
The cases were forwarded for further review to the Central Investigation Bureau, the Department of Special Investigation and the Anti-Money Laundering Office.
Violations of the Foreign Business Law could be punished with up to three years in prison and fines ranging from 100,000 to 1 million baht.
How integrated supply chains could depress prices
According to ministry analysis, some foreign-financed operators built integrated structures, leasing plantations while also running processing, packaging and export networks.
This concentration could turn large operators into dominant buyers able to dictate purchasing conditions and influence the farmgate price more strongly than individual producers.
More planting, bigger harvest – and frequent oversupply
The cultivation area for fragrant coconuts rose from 235,903 Rai in 2021 to 305,706 Rai in 2025, while production increased from 532,942 tonnes to 877,681 tonnes.
The nearly 50 percent surge at times led to oversupply, pushing prices down and driving many farmers’ incomes below their cost threshold.
Exports slump as China dominates demand
The export value fell from 9.89 billion baht in 2023 to 6.46 billion baht in 2025, as cheaper suppliers captured market share.
Around 70 percent of fragrant coconuts went for export and about 80 percent of that to China, yet Thailand’s share of the Chinese market dropped from 75 percent in 2023 to roughly 48 percent in 2025.
Farmers sound the alarm over 2-baht coconuts
Producers from the Sathing Phra peninsula in Songkhla accused China-linked purchasing centres of forcing prices down and reported a plunge from about 10 baht to as little as 2 baht per coconut.
Lower-quality produce fetched only around 1 baht, leaving farmers, by their own account, selling at a loss or not harvesting at all, and some threatened to cut down trees and abandon cultivation.
Political pressure over alleged market distortion
A senator who received a complaint argued that the crisis was not driven solely by oversupply but also by market mechanisms that gave large foreign-financed buyers excessive power over purchasing and exports to China.
Decharut Sukkumnoed, director of the Think Forward Center of the People’s Party, said falling export prices and structural inequality were pushing farmers into a weak bargaining position.
State countermeasures and an ambitious price target
The government placed coconuts on a “watchlist”, collected planting data, bought limited volumes at 5 baht per fruit and inspected purchasing centres, yet the average farmgate price in February 2026 stood at about 3.20 baht, down from 5.75 baht in December.
Decharut called, among other measures, for the purchase of 20 million surplus coconuts for processing, tighter price supervision and a target of 7.5 baht per fruit by the third quarter of 2026, while farmers were already threatening protests in front of parliament.