Thai Organic Consumer Association partners with TAT to launch platform connecting travellers with organic farmers.

In tandem with the reopening of Phuket on July 1, the Thai Organic Consumer Association (TOCA), in partnership with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), will be launching its platform to the global market with the return of the inbound traveler to the kingdom.

TOCA was set up two years ago by Arrut Navaraj, managing director of Suan Sampran, who’s been spearheading the organic food and tourism movement in Thailand for the past decade. Inspired by similar non-profit models in the US such as the Organic Consumers Association, TOCA aims to connect consumers including travellers, restaurants and hotels to a network of certified organic farmers throughout the country.

Arrut Navaraj: After working on the supply side the past decade and growing a network of farmers, TOCA is now working on the demand side to connect consumers, travellers and businesses with organic farmers in Thailand.

“For the past 10 years, we worked on the supply side, working with farmers throughout the country to spread the practices of organic farming and putting in place certification and a Participatory Guarantee System (PGS).

“Now we want to work on the demand side, getting consumers, travellers and businesses to join the movement and then making it easy for them to connect with the farmers,” said Navaraj, whose journey into organic tourism started when he turned his 60-year-old family resort business into an organic farming hub in the Sampran district of Nakhon Pathom.

What started as a tourist attraction offering Thai cultural shows in its early days now has 50 acres of certified organic gardens by the river, as well as the popular Patom Organic Living Café (there’s also an outlet in Bangkok) which retails Patom organic products.  

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