• 
• 

Published on January 14, 2008

The orchard is the country's biggest private collector, with at least 25 orange and tangerine strains. It has tried to replant some original Thai tangerines that have gone nearly extinct, such as the jook necked mandarin and keaw crystal mandarin.

The orchard not only crossbreeds oranges and preserves native strains but also imports selective strains for adaptation to growing in Thailand.

"My father will be happy if someone praises him for the quality standard taste of all our oranges rather than focuses on how big our business is," says Ekapong Pholpipattanaphong, managing director of PP Foods Supply, the distributor for the orchard.

Ekapong's father Prayoon established the orchard 17 years ago on about 6,000 rai of land in Chiang Mai's Fang district. Its specialities are sai nam pheung tangerines, Fremont oranges and the latest orange from Israel called "Ora".

Prayoon intends to develop quality oranges as well as maintain the taste of his oranges to ensure consumer satisfaction and food safety.

Fang is the country's biggest orange growing area, covering 100,000-120,000 rai out of the nationwide total of 180,000 rai.

Normally, oranges are an annual crop, but the orchard has managed by pre- and post-harvest technology to force its trees to produce fruit throughout the year. Management strives not only to keep the company afloat but also to provide a livelihood for hundreds of field workers.

Consumers will get a chance to taste those almost extinct keaw and jook oranges in the near future. The company has successfully cultivated them and is preparing to launch them commercially.

Ampaiwan Paradornuwat, an associate agriculture dean at Kasetsart University and head of research and development for the orchard, said the main orange planting area has changed from Rangsit north of Bangkok to Fang in the North over the years.

Rangsit was famous for its bang mod oranges, named after Bang Mod subdistrict. It once had 200,000 rai devoted to growing bang mod but now there are no more orange trees.

The plantations suffered from environmental changes and expansion of the metropolitan population. Farmland was taken over by businesses, especially to develop residential projects.

Ampaiwan said the orchard has focused on preserving those original strains and trying to crossbreed them to develop a variety of new strains. However, it will take at least 15 years for them to mature in quality

and taste before they can be marketed.

The orchard has successfully grown "Ora" oranges and will propagate them for commercial purposes, she said. They are just as sweet as the original and will hit the market this year.

The orchard's oranges meet the lowest residue standard required by Codex, she said.

A few years ago, the orchard started employing an innovative bag to protect oranges on trees from insecticide and pesticide. The wrapper was co-developed with foreign researchers.

The company imports more than 1 million of the patented bags per year from China, which was given the exclusive right from the partners to manufacture them.

Orange growers have been squeezed by falling prices. They are now getting only Bt8 per kilogram. The problem has mainly hurt small and medium-scale growers, who cannot maintain 100-per-cent quality control.

"It's the lowest price that growers have ever seen. We [growers] expect the price will get better in three years," Ekapong said.

The orchard's oranges are distributed under six company brands - Honey Queen, Tawan (sun), Royal Bee, 24K, Aksorn Jeen (Chinese name) and Nok (bird).

The premium fruit is exported to China, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines to capture high-end consumers.

Achara Pongvutitham

The Nation