Bangkok--26 Feb--TTIS Ms. Duangjai Koosrivinij, President of the Thai Toy Industry Association, said the association is confident that Thailand’s toy export value would increase at least 5 percent this year if there is no further baht appreciation. She noted that toys made of thenatural materials and educational toys have the brightest future, due to the higher demands in the global market. Meanwhile, the Department of Export Promotion (DEP), the Commerce Ministry, is organizing ‘The BIG Toys Design 2008’ contest under the concept ‘Pre-School Toy: ECO Play’. The campaign is aimed to develop toy design and production by bringing talent designers into the industrial sector. According to the DEP report, the value of Thailand’s toy exports stood at US$210.14 million last year. Thai toys’ major export markets are the US, Japan, UK, and EU respectively. “After talking with many local toy manufacturers and exporters, we are quite confident that the export value of Thai toys this year will grow around 5 percent from last year, if the baht value does not continue to strengthen further from the present,” Duangjai said. Duangjai noted that although the export sector has experienced negative factors - especially the baht value appreciation over the past two years and the economic decline of the US which is Thailand’s no.1 market, Thai toy industry, however, has gained benefits from the recalls of the Chinese-made toys by the US giant traders since July last year. According to Duangjai, the incidence has prompted the buyers’ growing concern about toy quality and safety standards. As a result, many toy importers in the global market have turned to place a greater number of orders with Thai exporters, due mainly to the internationally-accepted quality and safety standard of Thai products. “Our marketing strategy is to be able to underline our strong commitment in producing high quality products to our targets groups. This has successfully brought stronger trust and better understanding in Thai toy products among the global buyers. For the time being, they realize that Thai toy industry has potential to produce the outstanding design, high quality, and safe products - particularly the educational toys and pre-school toys. Therefore, the buyers who seriously concern about safety will turn to buy a greater volume of Thai toys,” she added. As part of the continual support of the Thai toy industry, DEP’s Office of Product Value Development has joined forces with the Thai Toy Industry Association to organize its 10th toy design contest entitled ‘BIG Toy Design’. The concept of this year’s contest is ‘Pre-School Toy: ECO Play’ focusing on designing toys for children aged between 3-6 years. The campaign is aimed to develop toy design and production by bringing talent designers into industrial sector. During the opening ceremony of ‘The BIG Toys Design 2008’ held at DEP office on Ratchaphisek road on February 4th, Duangjai Koosrivinij - the President of Thai Toy Industry Association and also Managing Director of Apache Industrial Corporation Ltd., stated that although the growth of Thai toy industry had slightly dropped last year, Thai-own companies who emphasize on producing designs, quality and safety have still performed well. Those who experienced the sales drop were the multinational companies based in Thailand. “Almost 80 percent of toys in the world are made of plastic, yet the major markets like Europe pay greater attentions to wooden toys, especially the educational toys. If we are able to improve our products to meet their requirements, our export sales will surely increase. It is because the prices of Thai toys are lower than other sources, despite having the same quality standard as European products. Therefore, Thai toys have apparently become the significant choice of international buyers,” she concluded. ‘BIG Toys Design 2008’ will open for applications on June 2-30, 2008. For more information, please contact the Office of Product Value Development, the Export Promotion Department. Tel: 0-2512 0093-104 Ext. 456, 453, or visit www.depthai.go.th/design. The 1st to 3rd places winners will be rewarded cash prize worth Bt40,000, Bt30,000 and Bt20,000, respectively plus certificates. In addition, they will be given an opportunity to go abroad for further study in design. The works of the BIG Toys Design’s finalists will be showcased in the Bangkok International Gift Fair and Bangkok International Houseware Fair (BIG&BIH) - October 2008. The fair is held bi-yearly in April and October by the DEP with its main purpose to provide business and export opportunities to local Thai manufacturers and exporters in gifts and premiums, home decorative items, housewares, home textile, toys, stationery and office supplies. The 25th BIG&BIH fair will be held during April 17-22, 2008 at the Challenger Hall, IMPACT, Muang Thong Thani. The first 4 days (April 17-20) will reserved for trade negotiations only, while the public days are on April 21-22. For more information, please visit www.bigandbih.com. Media Enquiry, please contact: Mr. Jack Sington Project Account Executive TTIS Company Limited Phone: +66 (0) 2661 2442 ext 605 Fax: +66 (0) 2661 2439 Email: [email protected]