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Published on February 28, 2008

Toys made of natural materials and educational toys have the brightest future, due to higher demand in the global market.

"After talking with many toy manufacturers and exporters, we're quite confident the export value of toys this year will grow about 5 per cent from last year if the baht does not continue to strengthen further," Duangjai said.

Amid negative factors, the Thai toy industry has benefited from recalls of Chinese-made toys by the giant US traders since last July, which prompted buyers' growing concern about toy quality and safety standards. As a result, many toy importers in the global market have begun placing more orders with Thai exporters.

"For the time being, they realise the Thai toy industry has the potential to produce outstanding design, high quality and safe products, particularly regarding educational and pre-school toys. Therefore, buyers who are seriously concerned about safety will buy a greater volume of Thai toys," she added.

Despite a drop in sales last year, Thai-owned companies that concentrated on producing design, quality and safety still performed well. Companies experiencing a drop in sales were multinationals based in Thailand, Duangjai said.

The Department of Export Promotion (DEP) said the value of toy exports stood at US$210.14 million (Bt6.78 billion) last year. Major export markets are the US, Japan, UK and the EU.

The DEP has co-organised a toy-design contest called "Big Toy Design", in order to develop design and production techniques.

"Almost 80 per cent of toys in the world are made of plastic, yet major markets like Europe pay greater attention to wooden toys, especially educational ones. If we can improve our products to meet their requirements, our export sales will surely increase, because our prices are cheaper," Duangjai said.

The Nation