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The Korean church based company that’s on a mission to revive our rice industry recently had its management team visit the biggest rice exporter in the world, Thailand.
Grace Road Food Company Limited’s interest was in organic rice farming. The group toured various rice producing regions with Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture.
Managing director, Daniel Kim was accompanied by Finance manager Taewook Park for a week’s visit to the land formerly known as Siam. Thailand is at the centre of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia.
The country presently recommends its farmers to change their way of production organically, which matches with the direction that Grace Road Food Company aspires to.
Globally, there’s been an upward trend in consumption of organically produced crops due to the keen interest in human health and the environment.
And as such, Grace Road’s aspiration to change all farming methods to organic methods was of great importance.
Mr Kim said: “Through this trip we were not only able to gain great ideas such as producing fertilisers using worms, but also gained confidence as to why rice has to be cultivated organically.
“As people already know, organic farming benefits the purchaser’s health, soil quality and the environment.
Additionally, since organic farming does not apply pesticides or chemical fertilizers, it reduces the overall production for all farmers, making organic farming profitable for all, he added.
“We will continue to research beneficially farming methods and apply organic farming techniques across all production schemes of Grace Road Food Company.
“In essence, our ultimate goal is to lead the way for Fiji’s agricultural produce to be cultivated organically and visiting Thailand was a meaningful step to fulfilling that goal.”