Khon Kaen seeks GI for its silk product

 Jiralak Preedee, an agriculturalist as the secretary-general of the committee working on the cloth's property rights registration, said GI would protect the cloth from counterfeiting in the world market. She said the registration is necessary given that many manufacturers in several countries have registered their rights over the products based on Thai wisdom.

 Khon Kaen has recently set up the committee to work on the registration. To complete the preparation, the committee has observed the production process, from the supply of raw materials, the production sites and patterns. Mad Mee silk is a renownd product of Chonnabot district.

 Jiralak said the committee would submit the GI application to the provincial commerce office within this week. Without protests, the GI should be awarded within 150 days. Then, the silk makers would be registered before they can put the GI mark on their products.

 "This will boost demand of the silk, particularly in Europe where GI-marked silk products have been popular," she said.

 Lamphun and Kalasin have recently won GI marks for their silk products, so-called Mai Yok Dok and Mai Phrae Wa, respectively.