THE DEVELOPING AND PROMOTING OF OTOP COTTON FABRIC PRODUCTS FROM NIKHOM NAM UN DISTRICT, SAKON NAKHON PROVINCE TO INTERNATIONAL ARENAS

Abstract

            Cotton fabric products are widely accepted for their special characteristics whereas in the northeastern part of Thailand is well-known as the major source of cotton fabric producers. Nikhom Nam Un district, locates in Sakon Nakhon Province, embraces the cotton fabric weaving as the secondary jobs its people who are mainly work as agriculturists.  Many weaving groups are founded in responding to the demand of the fabric.  This study aimed to investigate the development of cotton fabric products at this particular district with the attempt to add more values into products to meet the international demands. In-depth interview, conducted with two leading figures of each weaving group, was employed as the study tool.   The findings illustrated that most weavers were elders and the weaving was only their temporary job that could generate only small income. These two major insufficiencies led to the cease of the business for some fabric producers. However under these two inadequate conditions, there was a weaving group from Ban Un Kok which had received three-star OTOP awards in 2012 regarding to their fine cotton fabric products and their effective business management. Another point that clearly made Ban Un Kok group stood out from other weaving group was their collaborations with government agencies to market their products via government’s trade fairs e.g. OTOP festivals in Bangkok and within Sakon Nakhon province. In order to add more value into the fabric to suit the international need, it is recommended that the producers should frequently pay their attention to their customers’ needs, create new products preferably and solely from natural resources, improve the packaging, analyze the cost and benefit regularly and set a reasonable price, increase more distribution channels via online websites, create and inform product history, improve their selling and communication skills using foreign languages and transfer their knowledge and wisdom to younger generations.