Coconut-picking Thai monkeys become trade issue
A Thai villager looks at monkey climbing a coconut tree to collect coconuts for his owner in Thailand’s largely Muslim Narathiwat province in 2004.
Thailand’s coconut-picking monkeys, long a popular tourist attraction, have become a sensitive trade issue as British activists claim the animals are abused and push for a boycott of the nation’s coconut products.
Thai Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit rejected the allegations by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and declared that coconut harvesting by macaque monkeys is not a major part of the industry. He said the animals are mostly a tourist attraction and are not harmed.
“There is a difference between coconut harvesting using monkeys because of tradition or for tourism, and coconut harvesting on an industrial scale,” he said. “It is not profitable to use monkeys at the industry level. They have tools and methods to pick coconuts that are efficient and more profitable.”
Jurin said on Monday that PETA’s campaign was affecting sales in Britain as well as other European countries.
Thailand exported 12.3 billion baht (US$394 million) of coconut milk in 2019, including 2.2 billion baht to the European Union and Britain.
PETA said an undercover investigation of eight Thai farms found that monkeys are forced to gather as many as 1,000 coconuts a day and treated cruelly. It said its campaign has led several major retail outlets to remove products from companies alleged to use Thai coconuts harvested by monkeys.
The PETA campaign has drawn extra attention after it was publicly applauded by Carrie Symonds, the fiancee of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
PETA senior vice president Jason Baker rejected the Thai commerce minister’s denial.
“The government can lead the industry to operate humanely, with an animal-free method that the rest of the region has already adopted, or it can be responsible for the industry’s downfall, because the writing is on the wall,” he said. “Increasing numbers of consumers are speaking with their wallets, and retailers are listening.”
Jurin said his ministry would hold a meeting today with coconut industry representatives and he would invite foreign diplomats to see for themselves how harvesting is carried out.
“Most farmers are hiring pickers with cutters on long poles to pick coconuts. Macaques are used but very rarely,” said Nukul Luk-In, president of the Coconut Farmers Association.
