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More people
outside Thailand will be able to savour Thai cuisine this year, with
some 3,000 Thai restaurants expected to open in Africa, the Middle
East and other parts of Asia.
This will
increase the number of Thai restaurants abroad from 9,183 last year
to about 12,000 by the end of this year, said Phimol Srivikorn,
secretary to the Commerce Ministry and chairman of Thailand's
"Kitchen of the World" project, which seeks to promote the
country's culinary heritage abroad.
Aggressive
public relations campaigns have been staged abroad to create
awareness of traditional Thai cuisine. Project officials hope this
will fuel the growth of the Thai restaurant business abroad, and help
expand further the export value of farm products and processed goods
marketed under the One Tambon One product scheme.
Orders from
Thai restaurants abroad have helped raise agricultural exports an
estimated 100 billion baht a year on average, said Yuthasak Supasorn,
deputy executive director of the National Food Institute.
Atchaka
Brimble, director-general of the Office of Industrial Economics,
confirmed that her agency is giving the project its full support
because fishery, vegetable and fruit exports are projected to
contribute significantly to growth of the country's earnings from exports.
This year, the
project will focus on expanding the network of Thai restaurants
through overseas franchising, Phimol said.
Numbers aside,
the project is paying more attention to quality and handing out 'Thai
Select' certificates to restaurants abroad that meet standards set by
the Commerce Ministry, Phimol said.
Thai
restaurants that wish to obtain such certificates, and government
assistance in establishing outlets abroad, will have to comply with
minimal standards relating to the cooking process and ingredients of
traditional Thai recipes. |
