Kitchen of World moves ahead
To promote the government-backed Kitchen of the World scheme, the National Food Institute's main tasks are to export more skilled chefs and open more Thai-food restaurants abroad.
By 2008, the number of Thai-food restaurants overseas should rise to 20,000, from 9,100 outlets at present. This could help boost the annual export revenue of Thailand's food industry, which comprises shipments of commodities to finished products, by at least 20% to 400 billion baht.
According to Yuthasak Suphasorn, deputy director of the National Food Institute (NFI), plans to increase the number of Thai Select Thai-food restaurants abroad will go into motion starting in 2006.
Foreigners can eat food from Thai Select outlets through several different means, by looking for the brand at a stand-alone outlet, franchise outlet, in a big hotel and in local restaurant chains such as Wendy's in the United States and Skylark in Japan.
``We are working out how to make Thai food accessible to most parts of the world and we will finance operators to do so,'' said Mr Yuthasak who became responsible for the Kitchen of the World project last year.
He noted that there was room for Thai-food restaurants in many countries, given the growing popularity of the food. Potential countries are China where there are only 70 Thai-food restaurants operating on the mainland and many of them are not genuinely Thai.
``There are about 3,000 Thai-food outlets operating in the United States. The volume is still far short to serve this potential market, given the popularity of Thai meals,'' he said.
Mr Yuthasak said that to promote the Thai Select restaurants as venues that provide genuine Thai food, chefs must be supplied to restaurants abroad to solve the current shortage.
The NFI plans to export master chefs and open chef schools as a means to getting into countries where a work permit for such career is not currently available. Besides low-interest loans that have already been provided by state banks such as the SME Bank, Exim Bank and Krung Thai Bank, the institute is considering setting up a fund of 100-200 million baht to support operators opening abroad and to export chefs.
Mr Yuthasak said the Kitchen of the World campaign strategy would not merely accelerate Thailand's plans to be a major world food exporter but also spearhead the export of products from the One Tambon, One Product scheme. However, the most important mission of the Kitchen of the World strategy is to ensure Thai-food products are up to the safety and hygiene standards that are required by international rules.
The bird-flu outbreak has had no great impact on the Kitchen of the World campaign, he added, as it has now spread to many parts of the world, not only Thailand and Asia.
``It's a global threat right now,'' he said.
The NFI separated its food promotion unit last year so it could work more on marketing, while the institute focused on food testing and verification for domestic products and exports. Testing involves chemical substances, including antibiotics, to assure food is hygienic.
The NFI is not the sole agency in providing food safety services, private companies are also involved.
To support the Kitchen of the World campaign and cope with the international food system standard, ISO 22000, SGS (Thailand) Co, a local affiliate of the Switzerland-based verification, testing and system certification company SGS, has launched a new service to manage the certification of food safety.
The company sees big market potential ahead as food processors' products were required to meet the ISO 22000 standard at the beginning of September 2005.
