Inside the coconut cartel: how Chinese money squeezes Thai farmers

Hands knotted by a lifetime of hard work, Supon Haochareon says Thai farmers in his position do not get to retire. Instead, the 81-year-old and his wife Lamduan, 74, must tend more than 300 trees in Samut Sakhon, an hour west of Bangkok, agonising each year as prices slump and their coconuts grow smaller in the withering heat. This month brought the lowest prices on record: two baht (six US cents) per coconut – less than a stick of chewing gum – virtually wiping out all profit from their...

By Aidan Jones