In today’s age, where we have our personal trainers, doctors and lawyers, why shouldn’t we have our personal farmer? That was the food for thought offered by Arrut Navaraj, managing director of Sampran Riverside, at the Travelport Live conference in Bangkok earlier this month when he spoke of how he’s starting an Organic Tourism movement in Thailand, and encouraged us to get onboard.
The movement means getting hotels and restaurants in the country to source produce from the collective of 170 farmers that he’s formed so that “you, as the traveller, get to eat directly from the farmers”.
Navaraj said, “We are what we eat and we eat so often that we should care more about what we eat, and know the people who bring us our food. We should know the farmers and when we buy directly from them, we cut out the middlemen and the farmers benefit. “We don’t pay more but the farmers get more.”
Arrut Navaraj on stage at Travelport Live
One third of Thailand’s populations are farmers – around 20 million – and “we should support them,” he told the audience.
In this video, a farmer talks about how she lost her farm due to dwindling margins and being cut out by the middlemen and how the Organic Tourism movement helped her get back the deed to her farm. Hoteliers who have come onboard include Goh Choo Leng, general manager of Le Meridien and Plaza Athenee Bangkok and Marisa Sukosol of Siam Hotels.
Navaraj talked about how he’s trying to get different clusters in Thailand to adopt the Sampran model of facilitating organic tourism between travellers and farmers.
From Rose Garden to Sampran Riverside: A three generation family business transformed. Arrut, left and Anak, right, flanking their mother Suchada and grandmother Khunying Valee Yuvaboon.
Putting together the Sampran model wasn’t easy. Navaraj’s interest in organic farming started when he took over the reins of the third generation family business at the Rose Garden. He was looking to source local produce for the resort’s restaurants.
He visited the farms nearby but found almost all had given up organic farming methods for faster, commercial means. Over time, he managed to persuade them to revert to their original, natural methods of farming.
“I told them I’d buy whatever they grew, direct from them. That means no middlemen. It doesn’t increase our costs and they get more money for their vegetables.”
Over time, more farmers joined the collective and today, more than 170 farmers are part of the Sampran Collective.
More than 170 farmers are now part of the Sampran collective. Navaraj is applying for a grant to use blockchain technology to help with the distribution and authentication of food produced by the collective. Credit: Sampran Riverside
Putting together the collective has been challenging. You couldn’t get a more fragmented network of individuals, each with their own interests. But Navaraj has persevered, winning awards from institutions such as PATA and the Tourism Authority of Thailand as well as grants to help farmers find their commercial footing while they migrated to organic farming methods.
His latest project is to apply for a grant to use blockchain technology to help with the distribution and authentication of food produced by the collective. “With blockchain, we will be able to help farmers connect directly to buyers and we will be able to authenticate the origin of produce to remove fraud,” he said.
The Organic Tourism movement is the latest in a series of initiatives Navaraj and his brother, Anak, have implemented ever since they took over the family business started by their late grandmother, Khunying Valee Yuvaboon who, inspired by the gardens she saw in places such as the UK and Hawaii, wanted to create a similar retreat for foreign travellers and Thais.
Their mother, Suchada Yuvaboon, came into the business in the early 1980s and grew it into a destination in its own right, attracting nearly 20 million visitors to its Thai cultural show to the day it closed just this month.
The site for the show will be closed for six months and will be converted into the Patom Organic Village showcasing a farmer’s market, open factory and organic farm.
The name change from Rose Garden to Sampran Riverside itself was symbolic of the direction the grandsons wanted to take it – Sampran was actually the original name of the plot of land bought by his grandfather as a home-away-from-Bangkok for the family.
“We wanted to bring back to its roots,” said Navaraj, who came into the family business in 2005 after a career in investment banking. “We didn’t have roses anymore anyway and it felt strange when people came to the Rose Garden and asked, where are the roses?
“The type of travellers we were getting to Thailand was changing and our generation was also changing. There’s a new-found awareness and appreciation of Thai way of life.”
If you’ve been to Chinatown lately, you’ll know the veracity of his words. Lots of hidden bars, cafes and restaurants have opened within the old shophouses, embracing a Thai-ness within their modernity.
Patom Cafe in downtown Bangkok is located within the grounds of their grandmother’s house in Sukhumvit Soi 49: It is a showcase for the food of Sampran Riverside as well as organic products made by its farmers. Credit: Patom Cafe
To bring their products closer to the urban market – Sampran Riverside is a 45-minute drive from Bangkok – they built the Patom Organic Living Café within the grounds of their grandmother’s house in Sukhumvit Soi 49.
Khao Yum Dok Mai, a traditional dish made with organic flowers, served at Patom Cafe. Credit: Patom Cafe
All it took was one Korean media fam trip and the social media world was set alight with the café now frequented by women travellers from mainly South Korea and China. Fifty percent of the customers are local Thais, proving they also have a home hit.
The café sells traditional Thai food as well as their range of Patom organic products which now account for a substantial portion of revenues, essential as the accommodation and incentive business slowed down with the changing profile of travellers to Thailand.
“Thai food is loved by so many travellers and organic tourism is one way to ensure the authenticity of Thai food and agriculture is maintained,” he said.
As for what he feels is the most over-hyped Thai food, it’s Pad Thai and the most under-rated, Thai local vegetables. “Get them direct from the farmers and you will know the difference.”
(Featured image: One of the farms that are part of the Sampran Collective, photo credit: Sampran Riverside)
Watch video here