Chiang Rai News

Chiang Rai Strawberry Entrepreneur Bridges Urban-Rural Divide

Walaiporn’s 3,200-sq.-meter strawberry patch in scenic Wiang Sa village.

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CHIANG RAI – For a young Thai with a university degree, fluent English and work experience in the U.S., Walaiporn Phumirat made an unlikely career choice. While many of her former classmates were competing for city jobs, she returned to her rustic village in Chiang Rai Province, in the once-notorious Golden Triangle, and became an organic strawberry farmer.

In the five years since then, Walaiporn, 32, has become a one-person rural success story, deftly using social media (she has 20,000 Facebook followers) and much-improved airline connections to establish a growing market for her Backyard Strawberry brand in Bangkok, 800km to the south.

I chanced upon Walaiporn’s 3,200-sq.-meter strawberry patch in scenic Wiang Sa village at the end of a road trip through the mist-shrouded mountains and lush, fertile valleys where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet.

I had spent the previous week in very different surroundings — touring vast industrial estates, car factories and port facilities outside Bangkok. So munching sweet strawberries with the effervescent, entrepreneurial Walaiporn, her face shaded from the sun by a straw hat, offered a more grass-roots perspective on Thailand’s progress.

At its simplest, Walaiporn’s story attests to the Golden Triangle’s transformation from the main source of the global heroin trade to a bustling center of licit agribusiness straddling an important new trade route between Southeast Asia and China.

On another level, her success reflects the demand from Asia’s increasingly sophisticated urban middle classes for food provenance — and their willingness to pay for it. Walaiporn, who is better known by her nickname, “Be,” charges 600 baht ($17.62) a kilogram for her strawberries — far more than many imported varieties readily available on the shelves of upmarket Bangkok food halls. She has no distribution system in the capital, so online purchasers must arrange collection from either Suvarnabhumi or Don Muang airports.

Even so, a small but passionate group of consumers is happy to bear the inconvenience and cost because they know her strawberries are organic, flavorsome and sent by air from Chiang Rai within hours of being picked. “Yes, it’s easy to buy strawberries in any supermarket,” Vilailuck Sriya, a Bangkok secretary, told me. “But I like to eat right, eat organic and eat seasonal. I love Backyard Strawberry.”

IN YOUR DREAMS

Walaiporn’s lifestyle choice also offers hope that Thailand’s urban-rural divide may not be quite as unbridgeable as many imagine. Far from scorning rural life, many of her middle class city-dwelling customers envy her. “Some customers tell me that I live in their dreams,” she told me as we walked from her fields to the two-story wooden house she has built nearby. “They say they would like a life like this, growing their own good food.”

Vilailuck, who was born in rural Loei Province, certainly feels that way. “The inspiration Be gave me was to dream to go back to my home town, live a natural life and escape the chaos of this capital,” she said.

The daughter of a schoolteacher who became mayor of their local district, Walaiporn studied tourism marketing at Chiang Rai’s Mae Fah Luang University, and worked at SeaWorld theme parks in Florida and Texas during vacations. But after graduating, she decided she wanted to find a way to live and work in her home village.

Her first season was far from idyllic. Although strawberry farming in northern Thailand was not new — the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej had long promoted it as a substitute for opium growing in neighboring Chiang Mai Province — it had been less successful in Chiang Rai. Of the first 60,000 plants Walaiporn planted, 20,000 died within the first two weeks.

“I felt sad and upset,” she told me. “Being a farmer is not that easy.” That is one reason, she said, why many of Thailand’s farmers choose the simpler route of producing less valuable, non-organic crops. But she hopes her subsequent success will show what can be achieved.

Walaiporn’s organic strawberry patch is still a small operation. Even so, it is rapidly gaining attention. This year, Thailand’s Channel 5 television network broadcast a documentary on her. And her social media posts have inspired foreign visitors to travel to Wiang Sa to spend working holidays at Backyard Strawberry.

“Here, it would be thought quite freaky for girls in their 20s and 30s to run a farm,” said Yoon Hyein, 27, from Jeongeup-si, South Korea, who spent a month picking strawberries in return for free board. “I think she is doing the right thing for her village and also the whole world.”

By William Mellor

Chiang Rai News

Chiang Rai Man Kills Woman’s Infant Daughter When She Refuses His Sexual Advances

Police in Wiang Kaen District of Chiang Rai Province have arrested a 50 year old man after the threatened to rape a 20 year-old woman and the proceeded to murder her 2 and half month old baby.

Police with doctors from Wiang Kaen Hospital and the Chao Luang Wiang Kaen Welfare Association were summoned to the scene of the incident to a 2-story cement house, Village No. 2, Tha Kham Subdistrict, Wiang Kaen District of Chiang Rai

On arrival they found Ms. Chanikarn, age 20, in a state of distress crying uncontrollably beside her 2 and a half month baby girl (Linlada) that was dead on the floor.

After calming Ms. Chanikarn, the child’s mother, said that at approximately 2:30 p.m she was out to collect diapers that had been dried in front of the house, while her 2 and a half month old daughter was sleep on the ground floor of the house.

She said she was suddenly approached by a Mr. Lee, about 40 years old, who lived on the opposite side of the road. He came towards her and grabbed her arm and threatened her saying if she didn’t sleeping with him he will go and kill his daughter.

Miss Chanikan refused and ran away, then Mr. Lee then walked into the house and grabbed Ms. Linlada’s leg, smashing the child’s head against the cement floor of the house. The infant died immediately.

Mr. Lee then just walked away and returned to his own home, leaving Miss Chanikan and her dead baby.

When police went to Mr. Lee’s home he immediately confessed killing the infant and was taken to Wiang Kaen Police Station for further questioning. Under caution he told police that he was sexually attracted to Miss Chanikan‘s and when her husband leave for work he took the opportunity to approach her.

He said when he saw her husband leave he crossed that road and found Miss Chanikan in the yard alone, he then threatened her to sleep with him, saying he would kill her child if she didn’t have sex with him. However when she refused he flew into a fit of rage walked into her home and murdered he baby. He said he was out of control with rage.

After killing the infant he walk across the street to his home and waited for the police to arrive. The police have charged him with premeditated murder and attempted rape. He is being held without bail at the local remand center.

Meanwhile, Miss Chanikan and her family were preparing a religious burial ceremony for the child.

Other Chiang Rai News:

Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/

Chiang Rai News

Police in Chiang Rai Launch Crackdown on Cyber Criminals in Golden Triangle

CHIANG RAI: Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.

On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.

His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.

Pol. Gen. Kittirat Panphet, Deputy Commander and Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division, Assigned Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai Pitanilabut, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Police/Deputy Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division, has launched the operation ‘Bombing the Thieves’ Bridge’ in collaboration with the CAT Office, G., mobile phone network operators AIS DTAC TRUE NT, and local security agencies to cut the mobile phone signal and WiFi internet that criminals illegally use to deceive Thai citizens.

Pol. Gen. Kittirat Panphet, Deputy Commander and Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division

Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai stated that they will begin pressing the first action of the ‘Explosion of Thieves’ Bridge’ in Chiang Rai Province toward the thieves’ base of operations in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone.

The territory surrounding King Roman in Laos. King Roman is now a full-service entertainment destination with an airport that welcomes travelers from Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, he explained.

According to Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai, this operation will have no influence on honest people along the Thai border, and it will only target cyber criminals.

They will also increase the arrest and prosecution of unlawful service towers, such as SIM booths, which allow gangs register SIM cards to swindle the people. Dealing with criminal organizations of foreigners and Thais who band together to deceive and damage Thais.

Pol. Gen. Kittirat Panphet, Deputy Commander and Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) suspended more than three million SIM cards on July 16 because the holders had not verified their identities with their mobile phone operators by the deadline, in accordance with the NBTC’s measures to combat alleged fraudsters’ mule accounts.

The names of the holders of 80 million mobile phone numbers used for mobile banking transactions did not match the names associated with the mobile banking accounts.

The NBTC would require mobile phone companies to authenticate SIM card holders and the names of their mobile banking accounts. The verification procedure is expected to be completed by the end of September this year.

In addition, the NBTC and Royal Thai Police have collaborated to combat illegal telecom towers throughout the country’s borders, disconnecting signals at 465 places, altering antenna direction at 470 towers, and dismantling antennas at 179 locations.

They are certain that the move will disrupt contact center gangs and other types of technology-based crime.

Other Chiang Rai News:

Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/

Chiang Rai News

Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai

Police in Mae Chan, Chiang Rai, shot and killed a 28-year-old man who allegedly attacked a police officer with a machete. The officer was slashed in the right leg with the machete.

According to police, the culprit, known only as Mr. Toon, had been harassing local villagers in Mae Chan district, Chiang Rai, threatening them with a knife and using violet insults.

The village headman arrived on the scene to try to calm Mr. Toon, but he was shouting hysterically and taking swipes at him with the machete, so he contacted the police.

When the responding officer arrived at the site about 9 p.m., he attempted to calm the man, but he instead assaulted the officer, slashing his right leg with the machete. In self-defense, the cop had to fire his gun at Mr. Toon, striking him in the chest.

Mr. Toon and the policeman were taken to Mae Chan Hospital, where Mr. Toon died of a gunshot wound. Pol Sgt. Sutthikiat Phanomphraisakul was released from the hospital after receiving numerous stitches for his injuries.

Local police received a tip around 9.30 p.m. yesterday that a guy was causing mayhem in the village. When authorities arrived, they discovered 28-year-old Toon strolling along a public road, holding a large knife and threatening people. Mae Chan district officials attempted to contain the incident.

During a search of Mr. Toon’s home, authorities discovered methamphetamine consumption equipment. Locals told authorities that the man was addicted to Yaba (Methamphetamine) and an alcoholic.

The authorities are conducting an inquiry to determine Toon’s motivations and whether any underlying issues contributed to his violent outburst.