In 2013 Ceres had the opportunity to partner with a Thai family in an organic rice snack manufacturing company in Thailand and bring to Australia and New Zealand some products which weren’t readily available in the market. 

Our partnership has worked well and is especially pleasing to look back and see the distance we have come.  The company we formed ‘Bio Asia’ is run primarily by women.  Mind (pictured right) is the CEO and based in the family office in Bangkok.  Po (on the left) is the Factory Manager at the manufacturing plant in Chiang Rai in the north of Thailand. Another woman, Oiy, is the Product Development Manager and her skill is creating delicious vegan flavoured organic rice snacks which many New Zealand and Australian consumers love and keep asking us for more! 

Over the past 10 years of our partnership we have converted 64,632 rai of land from conventional to certified organic rice production.  Rai is a Thai measurement of land and 64,632 rai is equivalent to 10,341 hectares.  This land is farmed  by small farmers, working in clusters across the north and north-east of Thailand with a total of 3,899 farmers involved, working on average around two and a half hectares each.  This land gives those small farmers and their dependents their main livelihood.   The factory in Chiang Rai has 76 employees  meaning our sales of rice cakes and crackers across Australia and New Zealand provide an income to 3,975 people in Thailand.