Primarily, the problems of community products are the lack of standard and quality assurance. Even though the community products came from community wisdom, it was difficult to distribute the products to the market. However, these community products, or OTOP products, can be upgraded by STI, to enhance competitiveness of local entrepreneurs, by using standard and quality assurance to upgrade product and tourism standards which strengthen and sustain the community concretely.
To solve these problems, MHESI by TISTR conducted a project to upgrade local tourism and product standards by Thai wisdom in the region and collaborated with Rajabhat University Network. The project was funded by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), and merged two projects of ‘a research project to enhance creative community tourism based on local food wisdom on route of the Gulf of Thailand, the Andaman Sea Coast and multiculture of the Southern Border’, headed by Rajabhat Universities in the Southern Region, and ‘a research project to upgrade tourism and product standards by Thai wisdom in the region in collaboration with Rajabhat Universities’ headed by TISTR, which has Dr. Pariyada Visutthipat, a Director of Organization Communication Office of TISTR as a project leader. The project covers 10 provinces: Udon Thani, Lampang, Ratchaburi, Phetchaburi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Satun, Pattani, Nakhon Pathom, Ayutthaya and Bangkok, with the purposes to develop local products into identify products of the provinces, covering products of foods, beverages, appliances, decorations, souvenirs, clothes, textiles and non-food herbs.
To set up unique, trusted and standardized tourism attractions, the project upgraded community products to meet market demands and meet safety standards, and collaborated with 38 Rajabhat Universities, by using STI knowledge and infrastructures to upgrade the products. The project is designed and conducted to achieve development goals covering economic dimension (value-added products, higher income distribution and lower production costs), environmental dimension (lower pollution and emission), and social dimension (higher employment rate and better quality of life). Also, it could expand the success of the project to other areas/regions in Thailand.
NRCT and TISTR successfully upgraded local tourism and product standards by Thai Wisdom in collaboration with Rajabhat University Network, by (1) raising awareness and working together with Rajabhat Universities in order to upgrade community product standards for local entrepreneurs, (2) providing training programs on product standard systems, (3) providing testing and analysis for community product standards in comply with the standards given by Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and providing production site and production system accreditation to upgrade production standards, and (4) upgrading tourism attractions by tourism standard accreditation according to ‘Organic Agriculture and Good Agriculture Practices (GAP)’ given by the Department of Tourism and Farming Standards.
Concerning the problems of the local entrepreneurs, it was found that they could not commercialize their products into the market, because their products did not meet FDA standards. Also, they lacked technologies for value addition and mass productions for their products, as well as, they lacked quality control for their productions, impact control to the environment, stable quality raw materials, mass production machinery to save human labors, and production sites with standards.
In this connection, Rajabhat Universities and TISTR successfully implemented the project to solve these problems. The role of Rajabhat Universities is to develop the products. Meanwhile, the roles of TISTR are to provide test and analysis services according to nutrition principles and standard criteria. After implemented the project, they brough the concrete outcomes which included; (1) 7 training courses on systems and standards, e.g., quality system for food production, tourism standards, production standards for agricultural and herbal products, (2) 27 community products with TISI and FDA standard certifications, e.g., coconut ice cream, sticky baked banana, red lotus tea, pineapple juice and rose juice, (3) 21 entrepreneurs with production quality system certification (Primary GMP/GMP), e.g., ‘Luk Mai Khiri Wong’ tourism community enterprise in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, ‘Ban Chiang Wae’ tourism community enterprise and homestay in Udon Thani Province, and ‘Chuan Uncle’ classic ice cream at Ladmayom Floating Market Bangkok, and (4) 3 community products (Nakhon Si Thammarat Province) with FDA standard certification, e.g., preserved chempedak, preserved durian and three-flavored ‘Luk Yee’, and 30% of OTOP entrepreneurs are in the application process for production quality system certification.
Dr. Wiparat De-Ong, an Executive Director to NRCT, said that NRCT supported funding to this project to enhance community competitiveness and their productivity by STI, including adding value to their products, and to create jobs and incomes to people in the areas sustainably. Meanwhile, Dr. Chutima Eamchotchawalit, a Governor to TISTR, said that this project successfully upgraded tourism and product standards by Thai Wisdom and collaboration with Rajabhat Universities, by using STI for the national benefits and expanding the success model of this project to every areas/regions in Thailand onward.
If you need further information, or have any queries, or be interested in our service, please contact TISTR, via telephone number: 0-577-9009, email: tistr@tistr.or.th
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