Prapai Jaimun has been working for GreenNet since March 2004. During the past nine years, she was busy with organic and fair textile production while her main job today is to design and manage the production of T-shirts.
It was mere chance that she started her work with GreenNet: Before, she had been working with the Panmai Group, a cooperative of women making naturally dyed and hand woven fabric in the northeast of Thailand. She left this job with plans to go back to her hometown in PathumTani province (within a short distance in the north of Bangkok) but she changed her plans when she heard about the job offer at GreenNet in Bangkok.
For a certain time, Prapai Jaimun managed the sale of different hand-woven textile products for children such as bibs, hats or diapers. The products were coming from small-scale producers in Loei province in the northeast of Thailand. However, the production of these textiles stopped due to the lack of weavers in the village. Since weaving is a very traditional work in Thailand, today it is mainly done by old people, especially in the villages. Most young people don’t like to continue this tiring and intensive hand-work.
Therefore, Prapai Jaimun started a new project three years ago, namely, the production of organic and fair T-shirts. For this new project, the cotton is supplied by small-scale farmers from UbonRatchathani province in the Mekong River basin (about 84 farmers). The farmers cultivate the local cotton variety “Fai Noi”. The spinning of fiber and processing into textile is now done by machines of a leading organic cotton manufacture in Thailand. Finally, the cutting and sewing of the textile is carried out by the Solidarity Factory in Bangkok, a small group of workers, working for fair prices. The factory was founded in 2003 and is a cooperative of ex-employees of a textile company that were made redundant without being paid any compensation after having worked under inhumane conditions.
(For more information seehttps://www.facebook.com/pages/Dignity-Returns-A-Solidarity-Group-Thaila…)”>http:// https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dignity-Returns-A-Solidarity-Group-Thaila…)
Prapai Jaimun has designed a range of different prints with admirable drawings and messages promoting organic and fair trade production. In 2012, about 600 T-shirts were produced and this year the number rose to 900-1000 T-shirts. For the future, Prapai Jaimun is thinking about applying for the Global Organic Textile Standard Certification (GOTS) to make the T-shirts attractive as export products. But after all, the certification is expensive, so sales are primarily focused on the domestic market.
Thailand is actually importing 95% of its cotton demand, especially since the cotton production has even more decreased during the last years due to the high costs of pest control (pesticides)1. But the fact that Green Net T-shirts are thoroughly made in Thailand is only one aspect that makes them special. Additionally, the production is transparent and fair to farmers and garment producers and above all, the cotton is grown without the use of pesticides or GMO.
When Prapai Jaimun is asked why she is doing this job at Green Net that does not reward her with a fortune, she answers:
“I don’t think about money, I am happy to work with Green Net. I can do something for many people and work with the villagers; I like to preserve the environment and to take care of the environment. Also the lifestyle and family feeling here at Green Net is very important to me.”
Contact PrapaiJaimun: gconsumer.greennet@gmail.com
1According to the Field Crops Research Center Thailand https://www.icac.org/tis/regional_networks/documents/asian/papers/sebunruang.pdf
Article by Sandra Baumgardt, September 2013
