Locally developed Riceberry Donut warmly received

The move forms part of the company’s collaboration with the Puan Pung (Pa) Foundation under the initiatives of HRH Princess Somsavali and HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha to encourage Thai rice farmers to grow high-nutrition rice-berry organic rice and get better incomes.

Marketing director Raweepan Prakobwanakit said the organic Riceberry Donut was an innovative product developed to meet the needs of consumers as well as help Thai farmers.

“The company already had a project to add value to our products. Eventually, we joined forces with the Puan Pung (Pa) Foundation as a supplier of rice-berry flour to produce a new tasty doughnut made from rice berry, known as ‘Super Rice’, to serve our consumers,” Raweepan said.

Five years ago, Dunkin’ Donuts had a project to produce a doughnut made from jasmine rice, but it never made it to the marketing stage. 

This year, however, is perfect timing for the company to launch the new Riceberry Donut in close cooperation with the Puan Pung (Pa) Foundation, she said.

Rice berry is a combination grain between hom nil rice (black jasmine rice) and khao dok mali 105 (hom mali rice), innovated by Kasetsart Univer-sity. The grain has been proved to be high in nutritional, fibre and vitamin value. The Puan Pung (Pa) Foundation will buy organic rice berry directly from farmers at a price of Bt25,000 per tonne, compared with normal white paddy rice that sells in the market at about Bt8,500 per tonne, or about Bt13,000 per tonne for paddy hom mali (jasmine rice). 

 

More markets eyed

Since the company launched the new product in the market about a month ago, it has received a very good response among local consumers, said Raweepan.

The aim is for the Riceberry Donut also to be distributed in other countries, in particular within Asean, in the near future, she added.

She said that during its recent global conference, Dunkin’ Donuts units in many countries such as South Korea, Vietnam and Malaysia were amazed by the new product and expressed high interest in distributing the Riceberry Donut in those markets. 

Golden Donuts (Thailand) received a new-innovation award for its Riceberry Donut during the event.

Raweepan said that with the good feedback from the market, she expected more Thai farmers would start growing rice-berry organic rice because of the potential for the market to absorb supply.

The company currently produces six flavours of Riceberry Donut: crispy choc, rainbow, crispy rice, very strawberry, sesame ring, and glazed twist. 

Besides the new doughnut range, Dunkin’ Donuts is offering DD Popping Tea Riceberry as a special new drink for customers.

Riceberry Donut and Riceberry Tea are available in all 250 branches of Dunkin’ Donuts around the country. 

Raweepan said the company planned to open another 15-20 outlets next year.