Tough legal penalty to be imposed on exporter, orchard of substandard durian

BANGKOK, September 13 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, has vowed to impose tough legal punishment against an exporter and a southern orchard if an official probe finds that they are behind a recent shipment of substandard durian to China. Thai Deputy Permanent Secretary for Commerce Wichai Phochanakij announced the stance on September 12 in response to a claim that a Chinese fruit importer found a container of unripe durian, out of a total of six containers of the fruit, shipped from Thailand last month. Wichai told journalists that his ministry has asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to conduct an investigation on the alleged case as it affects the fame of Thai durian on the global market. Wichai said an initial result of the official probe has found that the Thai fruit exporter purchased the unripe durian from an orchard in Chumphon Province, a largest durian source in the Thai South, and shipped the substandard fruit to Beijing. According to the senior official, the owner of the southern Thai orchard has already agreed to pay a financial compensation of over 2 million baht to the Chinese importer to uphold the country's reputation. However, the senior official insisted, his ministry has asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to impose a tough legal punishment against both the exporter and the durian orchard in the Thai South. The senior official revealed that the legal penalty may be as tough as putting both the exporter and the fruit orchard in the Thai South on the black list, along with a stiff fine and a jail term for a certain period of time as it is considered a criminal case for damaging the national reputation.(TNA)