Social Commitment
The people in Thailand are grateful for your support!
As a young company working in the area of Thai cuisine, we ask ourselves: "What can we do for Thailand"?«
Through our social commitment, we want to give these people the opportunity to sell their handmade products at fair conditions, offer them access to new markets and thereby improve the standard of living for their families.
We value the experience, the attention to detail and the natural raw materials with which Thai workers make their products and are happy to be able to give something back to our homeland in this way.
In the villages of Thailand, we went to search for possibilities to properly store the ingredients of our box sets. The question came up, how can we store beautiful things in a way that we can enjoy them for a long time. Handmade bamboo boxes caught our eye.
Here is where our artisans live
Current situation
Bamboo products have been a part of Thai culture for a long time. Many people and especially elderly women in Chonburi, Ayutthaya and Udon Thani make a living from their production. They make a variety of bamboo products by hand and sell them directly there.
The elderly do not have access to other distribution channels and are therefore dependent on local sales, through which, however, only little income can be generated. To ensure their survival, the villagers have to grow fruit or rice on the side.
This work is hard and, especially for the elderly, physically demanding and energy-consuming. Many families have therefore already given up hope of continuing in their profession. In personal conversations with the workers, the reasons for this development quickly became clear: the younger generation no longer sees a future in the old trade, as the earning opportunities are too low to be able to support their own families later on. Instead, the children of the workers' families migrate to factories because it is easier to earn money there. The art of making products from bamboo is therefore less and less often passed on to the next generation. This handicraft, and with it a piece of Thai culture, is in danger of becoming irreversibly extinct in the future. That would be a great pity, so we thought about how we could support the workers' families.
What can we do?
We support the older women financially with their projects and also help to find new customers for them, including international ones. We give them access to the online market to increase their sales. The biggest customer so far is a hotel in Dubai, which uses the bamboo products to decorate its rooms. We are still looking for ways to make the new bamboo products more popular. If you or someone you know is interested, please feel free to contact us directly. We will then organise and advise you free of charge. It is important to us that the elderly people in the village are better off in the long run.
Workshop with KONKRUA
We have also organised free workshops for children who want to learn the art and way of making the bamboo products. Many schools in the area participated in the workshops. We had a lot of fun together!
During the workshops, the younger generation learns how to be creative with bamboo and then masters basic manufacturing techniques. This gives the children a sense of the beauty of their culture and allows them to make bamboo products themselves in their free time. We hope to make a small contribution to the preservation of this traditional craft.
At the end, there is always delicious coconut ice cream and lots of laughter!
In addition, our customers also support many local farmers and small producers in Thailand through their purchase.
In this difficult time, we are so happy to have the chance to support the super nice and warm-hearted working women.
Our KONKRUA family is only getting bigger and bigger!
Roi-Et is one of the best growing areas for jasmine scented rice in Thailand. Our rice is also born here.
The work of cultivating, taking care, harvesting and sorting rice deserves fair payment. Your support ensures environmental protection and good living conditions.