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The Business Development Department is cooperating with 30 modern traders, the Home Shopping Association, and production experts to upgrade selected One Tambon, One Product (Otop) items to increase their commercial value.
Bangjongjitt Angsusingh, director-general of the department, said around 2,000 Otop items could easily become premium products suitable for the world market.
The department and its 30 partners will cooperate in a project called the “Best Otop 77 Experience” to select premium Otop products from all 77 provinces for modern traders and malls to sell to Thai consumers and tourists.
The activity to select the Otop products began yesterday and will be held until Thursday at the Commerce Ministry headquarters in Nonthaburi.
There are currently 98,436 Otop products in the countries. They are mainly souvenirs, accounting for 30.9 per cent, followed by food (30.5 per cent), fabrics and clothes (22 per cent), herbs and non-food products (12.46 per cent), and beverages (4.12 per cent).

TRADITIONAL MEDIA SEE LOWER AD SPENDING IN MAY

Advertising spending on traditional media such as analog television, radio, newspapers and magazines declined significantly in May from the same month in 2016, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Ad spending on analog TV dropped by 21.25 per cent year on year to about Bt3.65 billion last month, while spending on radio dropped 25.66 per cent per cent to Bt368 million. 
Ad spending on newspapers dropped by 21.98 per cent to about Bt614 million. Magazines faced the highest decline in advertising revenue, as spending dropped by 42.86 per cent year on year to only Bt148 million in May.
Advertising expenditures on digital TV increased 2.58 per cent year on year to about Bt1.94 billion last month. Meanwhile, spending on cable and satellite TV increased by 4.89 per cent to Bt322 million. 
Spending on cinema advertising increased by 17.43 per cent to Bt593 million, and on outdoor media by 22.38 per cent to Bt503 million.
The top 10 advertising spenders in May were Korea King cooking pans, Toyota passenger cars, Toyota pickups, Oppo mobile phones, Coca-Cola soft drinks, Samsung mobile phones, Chang, Vivo mobile phones, Wall’s ice cream, and Fanta soft drinks.

GOVT SURE OF CLEARING RICE STOCKPILES THIS YEAR 

The government is close to clearing out its rice stockpiles, with only 3 million tonnes left from a total of more than 18 million, the Commerce Ministry reports.
It said sales of the rice so far had generated more than Bt129.82 billion.
Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said that during the past three years since the military seized power from a democratically elected government, her ministry had been able to sell 13.89 million tonnes of the stocks accumulated under rice-pledging farmer-subsidy programmes. 
“The government now has about 3 million tonnes of rice remaining in the stockpiles. It has a priority to clear out this rice before the end of this year so that it will reduce pressure on rice prices and relieve the state of the high costs of warehousing,” she said.
Of the 13.89 million tonnes sold so far, 3.46 million tonnes was sold under government-to-government contracts worth a total of Bt50 billion.
With much lower rice stockpiles, Apiradi is confident that rice prices will be on the rise and Thai farmers will earn more from selling their produce during the out-of-harvest season.