Enterprise aims to improve the quality of life of farmers

Peetachai Dejkraisak set up Siam Organic five years ago based on his vision of developing a business as a social enterprise that improves the quality of life of rice farmers, by enabling them to generate more revenue and reduce operating costs. 

His company moreover plans to utilise information technology to allow farmers to input key data about their planting and other operations, in order for it to be analysed centrally so productivity can be increased.

The initial target is for some 2,000 rice-farming households in the Northeast to benefit, and in the medium term for the livelihoods of more than 20,000 households to be greatly improved within the next three years. 

Siam Organic also utilises digital marketing to access both the domestic and international markets.

Chief executive officer Peetachai said the firm runs its business as a social enterprise to provide the Jasberry brand of nutritious, healthy and certified organic rice. 

Jasberry is a blend of Thailand’s renowned jasmine fragrant rice and berries, which have a high antioxidant content. 

“Siam Organic is a social business that aims to solve the problem of farmers’ poverty through innovative organic products with global appeal. Jasberry rice is a new variety of rice with an extremely high level of antioxidants [at 13,370 ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity units)]. 

“Jasberry rice has 2.8 times more antioxidants than blueberry and 10 times more than green tea, and this helps fight diseases such as cancer, high blood pressure and Alzheimer’s. Jasberry rice is soft and delicious, unlike other brown rice and wholegrain healthy rice. It is USDA [US Department of Agriculture]-certified organic and non-GMO [non-genetically modified organism],” he explained. 

Under the social-enterprise set-up, the company provides seeds, training, microfinance, organic fertiliser, technical advice on farming, and buys organic rice at a guaranteed price from participating farmers. 

Siam Organic currently supports around 1,000 farming households in Roi Et and Yasothon provinces for the production of high-antioxidant rice. Overall output of 1 billion tonnes is targeted this year, 20 per cent of which will be exported.

As a result, farmers are able to bring in 14 times more income than the average Thai rice farmer, with a total of over US$1.85 million (Bt64.8 million) in social benefits expected this year, he said.

The social enterprise distributes rice to the US, with plans to expand sales to Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand by the end of the year. 

“We have started exporting to the US, where our Jasberry rice reached 70,000 consumers by March. So far, we have got wonderful feedback from consumers wanting our products in their homes, or to be able to purchase them in wholefood markets. We also utilise digital marketing to promote our products,” the CEO said.

Peetachai added that the business would also pursue future development of other Jasberry rice-based products, such as rice flour. The enterprise has an ambitious medium-term goal to support at least 20,000 farming households over the next three years, with combined rice production of around 20 billion tonnes.

Some 90 per cent of the targeted output will be for the international market, and the hope is that the business model can be replicated in other developing countries where millions of farmers are also stuck in poverty, he said.

Siam Organic will also utilise IT to support “the farmer in the farm”, with modern technology enabling them to input plant and farm information into a mobile device so it can be sent real-time to the system, making it easy to manage and support farmers at their place of work. 

“I think the social-enterprise form of business will help farmers solve their problems in a sustainable way, and improve their quality of life,” the CEO said. He added that the firm last month landed first prize at the “Spark the Fire” pitching competition, held during the “Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2016” at Stanford University in the US, winning $30,000 and an opportunity to be mentored by Silicon Valley’s finest to help scale the business globally.

Siam Organic has also recently partnered with Kiva, a US-based online microfinancing company, to help fund organic farm inputs for small-scale farmers in Isaan.