Sowing seeds of success

Sowing seeds of success

Continuing our Female Leadership series, Life talks to Suwanna Langnamsank, a pioneer in running organic and macrobiotic food shops known as Lemon Farm

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE

Two glass jars on a table: One on the right has a carrot inside, the other contains rotten stuff. The smell of the second jar, if the lid is lifted, is likely to be unpleasant. The right jar has a label that reads "organic carrot", the rotten one is "conventionally-grown carrot". Both jars are marked with the date May 23, 2016.

Suwanna Langnamsank, managing director of Lemon Farm shops.

This is a simple test at Lemon Farm, a pioneering supermarket in organic produce that has operated in Bangkok for almost two decades. In 1999, there was one branch, today Lemon Farm has 14. Beginning when the trend of organic eating was virtually unknown, the shop has grown in reputation and now has more than 3,000 product items. It works with 125 farmer families in six provinces that supply produce.

The woman behind the organic marketplace is Suwanna Langnamsank, who is also founder and managing director of the Health Society Company, which owns and manages Lemon Farm.

"I believe in safe food," said the 60-year-old. "And organic food is known as the safest food for consumption so far. Clean food is vital for good health and good health is fundamental to our life."

She pointed to the organic carrot that had sprouted new roots while being kept in the jar in a normal room temperature for almost three months.

"The organic carrot has a vital force. It was not doped by chemical fertilisers and synthetic pesticides, so it is stronger than a conventionally-grown carrot," Suwanna said.

Founded with 3 million baht in registration capital, Lemon Farm struggled selling organic products during the company's infancy. Consumers did not understand the idea of "organic" and how it was different from easily available regular food. Organic vegetables also were considered expensive and unappealing, which is still the case now.

Organic vegetables have more variety and look more appealing than two decades ago.

Farm produce also is seasonal. There were times farmers could not supply products as promised. Other times, they delivered products without advance notice, making it hard to manage stocks.

There also was the time when Suwanna found that a farmer cheated by buying conventionally-grown vegetables from Talad Thai, a wholesale market for fruits and vegetables in Rangsit, and resold them to Lemon Farm. The farmer was delisted right away.

Quality control is essential to Lemon Farm's success and its R&D team randomly tests the goods. A simple method is to keep a sample in a glass jar and close the lid. If the item is conventionally grown -- containing chemicals and pesticides -- it will go rotten within a few days. They also use test kits to detect pesticide residues weekly and sometimes send samples to the professional laboratory of the Science Service Department to confirm results.

But only testing end products does not satisfy Suwanna. She has to see the farms and know the farmers, she said.

"Growing organic crops needs a lot of effort. We have to make sure that we work with the right farmers. They must have a strong determination to follow organic standards. We have to share the same vision that we are making healthy food for people," she said.

Organic standards

A well-known international organic standard accepted worldwide is the Basic Standard of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), which is used as a reference by many countries and organisations to develop certification systems that consumers trust.

Lemon Farm applies the federation's standards and also developed the Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) as a complementary method to organic certification. PGS is a low-cost, locally-based system of quality assurance where farmers inspect other farmers in the same organic network. Lemon Farm utilises PGS when deciding to certify small-size organic farms.

The team at Lemon Farm always conducts on-site inspections together with farmers from other farms in their network to check if the inspected grower follows organic rules and techniques and levy penalties if they do not.

"PGS is a very good system. It allows us to trace back through the farm process and makes use of social control," she said.

The farmers, on the other hand, will have hands-on training and can share their knowledge while inspecting other farms.

At present, there are eight groups of farmers from 125 families in six provinces, covering a total area of 1,650 rai.

Through PGS, a group of farmers in U-Thong district in Suphan Buri sell their organic rice to Lemon Farm. Another group of farmers, the Lahu hilltribe people in Ban Pha Charoen in Mae Hong Son, can grow many types of cold climate fruit trees such as avocado, peach and plum in their mountain forest.

A group of fishermen from the coastal province of Prachuap Khiri Khan have been able to open more distribution channels for their fresh, clean and formaldehyde-free seafood under the brand Fisherfolk through branches of Lemon Farm.

Having a market for organic products with fair trade and fair prices can encourage more farmers to change from conventional to organic farming, Suwanna said.

Eat right

Organic food consumers are believed to be mainly high-income buyers or health-conscious people. But the increasing awareness in healthy eating has expanded the customer base in recent years. Mothers with newborn babies and families with elderly or sick members, especially cancer patients, also have turned to organic consumption.

About 3,000 products are available in Lemon Farm outlets.

Suwanna herself used to have allergies. She said the sickness was gone after she changed her eating habits. She selects only organic food, eats at least 400g of vegetables a day and reduces her consumption of sweet and oily food.

In 2005, she announced a policy to stop selling soft drinks, a cash cow product for Lemon Farm.

"We must stand our ground that we will provide only healthy food," she said.

Lemon Farm has about 3,000 products today. However, not all are certified organic, except for rice varieties, all of which are 100% organic.

Organic fruits and vegetables are seasonal and account for about 80% of off-the-shelf items. The produce must be certified by Lemon Farm's PGS, Department of Agriculture or by Organic Agriculture Certification Thailand. The rest of the farm products are chemical free. Snacks and processed food must not have trans fats, preservatives or harmful chemicals like nitrates for sausages.

"We have many details for choosing products for our shops because we try to select healthy food as much as we can. We will never sell genetically modified organisms [GMO] and hydroponic products in our shops," she said.

Organic food has its detractors -- acquiring an image of expensive, complicated and even snobbish food. But for Suwanna, there's no need to make healthy food difficult. As a mother, she suggested other mothers simply start with organic rice. Then add organic vegetables to every meal even if you eat them with cooked food from a street food stall. And try to cook food at home at least once a day.

"Mothers play a crucial role for the healthy condition of family members, because she is the one who selects materials for cooking or food for family," she said.

Lemon Farm organises a campaign of "Eat right-Eat Organic" to encourage people to eat 400g of organic vegetables and fruits everyday. They also distribute handbills to raise awareness of unhealthy diets that can lead to serious medical issues like a heart attack, stroke, cancer, asthma and diabetes.

"It is like refilling the fuel tank of your car. You will need uncontaminated oil otherwise it will cause problems to the car engine. So does our body. If the food we have daily is contaminated, we will get sick one day," she said.

More for city people

Believing organic foods are good for health, Suwanna wants everyone to have a chance to eat them.

Apart from having supermarkets, Lemon Farm opened the "Be Organic" restaurant in the Lemon Farm shop at the Portico Langsuan community mall. It offers a macrobiotic diet which is mainly based on unpolished rice, whole grains, vegetables and beans.

Suwanna also plans to offer an "organic box" prepared meal at Lemon Farm shops to benefit the busy life of city people. In addition, she plans to launch a mini Lemon Farm so that there will be more outlets near consumers.

The 14th Lemon Farm shop will be opened in The Walk Kaset Nawamin shopping mall in October. She plans to expand the outlets to other big cities and will launch an online store.

Although the business has grown well, from the humble revenue when it started 18 years ago to 400 million baht last year, Suwanna does not consider herself a good businesswoman.

"My main focus is not about increasing revenue, but to do things that I think are useful," she said. For her, the business success is based on positive feedback from farmers and consumers.

"The thing that makes me proud is when I meet farmers and they are happy working with us as well as when I learn that our customers have healthier lives or even recover from sickness because of organic food," she noted.

CHRONOLOGY

1999: Opened its first Lemon Farm shop in Pracha Chuen.
1999-2003: Held workshops for planting organic vegetables.
2004: Started the annual tree planting activity at Sukhato Forest temple in Chaiyaphum.
2005: Stopped selling soft drinks.
2006: Launched macrobiotic diet workshops. Suwanna received Family Values Award from the Office of Women's Affairs and Family Development of Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.
2009: Opened Be Organic restaurant. Suwanna received Outstanding Woman Award from the Social Development and Human Security Ministry.
2010: Lemon Farm was awarded Ongkorn Sang Suk (Happiness Promoting Organisation) by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.
2011: Worked with the Commerce Ministry to launch the "Go organic community" forum to educate people about organic food.
2015-present: Joined hands with Thai Health Promotion Foundation and Department of Internal Trade to promote the "Eat Right-Eat Organic" campaign.

Lemon Farm will open its 14th outlet in The Walk Kaset Nawamin in October.

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