This article appears in the July 2024 issue of Forbes Asia. Subscribe to Forbes Asia
Pradit Pataraprasit.
Taaradthai
This article is part of Forbes’ ranking of Thailand’s richest people for 2024. See the full list here.
Thailand’s former deputy finance minister and retail tycoon Pradit Pataraprasit derives most of his family’s $1.22 billion fortune from the mall group that runs Bangkok shopping hotspots such as Siam Paragon, Emporium and the massive 200,000-square-meter Emsphere mall, which opened in December. (The Pataraprasit family holds a minority stake in the mall group controlled by retail tycoon Supalak Wunpji, whose family owns the majority stake.)
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But away from the usual tourist routes, Pradit and his family own another bustling market north of the city: Talat Thai, a sprawling 80-hectare wholesale food market, the largest in Southeast Asia.
Talad Thai attracts 100,000 buyers and sellers daily with a combined annual turnover of $7 billion, and includes an on-site fruit and vegetable quality testing laboratory and cold chain facilities.
Two years ago, Taladthai launched an online produce platform selling more than 5,000 products, from beans to bananas, and is on track to record total sales of 55 million baht ($1.5 million) by 2023.
