The Perspective Of Thai Corianders To Become The Key Exporting Plant
The Maslow hierarchy said that Food is the basic need of human being, and in today’s world, the situation keeps changing and moving. The good way to understand the situation is to use economic, which can help us have a better view of the big picture. There is no country that can produces all products themselves. So we people started exchange commodity through forests, pass a desert and across an ocean. Including Thailand, it is undeniable, that the exports of goods generate revenue for the country. As the number shown, Thailand top trader are with China 12. 4%, US 11. 2%, Japan 9. 5%, Hong Kong 5. 2%, Vietnam 4. 9%, Australia 4. 5% and Malaysia 4. 4% (World, 2017) Recently, there is an unusual spark in faraway island called Japan. Japaneses suddenly notice the common Thai coriander.
After having reported on its properties, it went viral. Coriander, one of well-known herbs which can be found in every market in Thailand, now famous in Japan. Many of them still keep using the name “PAKUCHI”, which is taken from the Thai name “PAKCHEE” to the plants. Coriander becomes so famous that new innovation products start to pop up. All kinds of food in Japan are now available such as, pakuchi chips, soup, ramen, spicy sauce, fried rice, spring rolls, porridge to even pakuchi candies, and many more special menus from different restaurant (Ploychompu, 2018). Picture 1: Graph shows a brief description of demand of Pakuchi in Japan Highly significant. The first impact of this is that there is sudden change in demand increasingly from Japanese, at first the price fluctuated, and the price increase rapidly in short term. Then, the price actually did not change that much. This is because there are so many coriander suppliers in the world. Japan don't necessarily needs to buy them all from Thailand. For example, Vietnam coriander-flavored instant noodles, Ngon Lam Vietnam Rau mui, it solds 2 millions packages in Japan in less than 2 years (Mieko, 2016). Although the Thai coriander is preferred, there are many availability of substitutes in the market, making the demand curve elastic. Picture 2: Graph shows the increase in supply of Pakuchi in Japan.
After sometimes, when the price is high enough in Japan, there are more supplier entering the market. Japaneses themselves start to plant their own corianders locally, and the equilibrium point is being moved by the invisible hand automatically to the new point on the right side. Japaneses misunderstanding about recipe in Thai, and they end up using way more corianders in dishes than Thailand counterparts. For them, food can be create varied. In Thailand, Pakchee only put into some main dishes or for decorating the plate with its greenery curl leaf and its unique aroma. Thailand has a famous policy, it is to become THE KITCHEN OF THE WORLD, which indicated 15 years ago (Phusadee, 2018).
Nowadays, Thailand still adopts this policy, along with moving toward technology era, Thailand 4. 0 policy from General Prayuth Chan-ocha. Technology is another one variable to affect productivity. Moving forward with the time is the technology, which people always develop and improving. Surely, there will be better technology to help us produce more and better kinds of corianders. Moreover, Analysis forecast the world GDP to triple by the year 2050 (John, 2015). With more income, there will be more opportunity for Thai corianders. Maybe Thai corianders can become another key exporting plants in the future.
