A company founded with a determination to help farmers and create organic food products shares its commitment to the community and how it is developing the business.

In 2000, Pakinee Jiwattanapaiboon had a vision to produce organic food that is tasty and healthy while following the sufficiency economy model. Thus, Xongdur brand was established after Jiwattanapaiboon convinced farmers in Suphanburi province to grow wholegrain cereals such as soy beans, mung beans, lotus seeds and white and black sesame seeds in addition to brown rice that is locally grown in the area.

“We didn’t start from the money standpoint,” says Jiwattanapaiboon, “We wanted to develop know-how in processing organic products.”

Using local knowledge with modern technology, Xongdur produces organic food products ranging from cereal bars, cereal drinks and even baby food called Xongdur Baby, which is a mixture of GABA rice and banana, pumpkin and spinach.

“Most of our products are made from organic ingredients, not utilising any fertilisers, so they have very little effect on the environment,” says Jiwattanapaiboon about the company’s environmental management system. “We use the process of drum drying to make the snack bars and we use the water that we clean the ingredients like rice and sesame to ferment as fertilizers on our farms.”

 

 

Xongdur products have been certified with international standards such as IFOAM, Organic EU, USDA and Organic Canada. The company also received the PM Award in 2009 and the Thailand Trust Mark in 2014 to certify its high standards and commitment to the environment and society.

“We have learning centres for locals to teach them to live with nature. We support local farmers by buying the produce directly from them at reasonable prices and we don’t use middlemen,” says Jiwattanapaiboon, adding that from the start, her team has been teaching farmers to grow crops organically and they have also established an organic farmers’ network.

Not only does the company lift farmers’ standards of living through fair trade, it is deeply involved in the community. “It’s important to develop the knowledge of people,” says Jiwattanapaiboon, “We have programmes to teach children to read, and summer camp projects.”

On the business side, Xongdur is now widely sold in leading supermarkets in Thailand and also abroad in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Laos and Indonesia.

“When people think of a safe, organic and tasty brand people think of us,” she says. “Even big supermarkets like Tops would give us priority. I think it’s because we follow the health trend.”

“The brand is very Thai. It’s a cereal that is different from other brands and tastes different from similar products from other countries. We’re proud to be different and we want to continue to grow the business sustainably.”
For more information, visit www.xongdur.com
Words by Sirinuch Borsub