Villagers earning money from water hyacinth products

Water hyacinth fiber is uniquely designed into tissue paper boxes and desk lamps. The products cost about 1,000 baht each and customers buy them as gifts.

The idea to design the products came from Duangduean Dangkong, an ex advertiser/advertising creative, who experienced economic problems in 1997. She came home to Ayutthaya, where the Chao Phraya river inspired her to make use the floating Java weed.

“Villagers have a new job to grow water hyacinth. The plant doesn’t need any care. I buy it at one baht per kilo. For dried water hyacinth, it costs 3.5 baht per kilo.”, said Duangduean.

Villagers remove fungus from the water hyacinth and dye it while Duangduean, head of the group, designs new products every month. Warrior, Princess, and Native American dolls are the most popular.

Last year, a large order was cancelled due to the economic recession. The slump was a blow to villagers.

“We have to find more markets to increase sales volume. We created our own brand to promote our products. Increased sales generate income to support the household economy ”, said Duangduean.

The group has materials, labour and ideas to create water hyacinth products but it lacks working capital and markets to sell the product. It hopes the government will help it as a small and medium enterprise, and others like it, urgently.

Source: MCOT English news

Nice profit selling 1000 baht tissue boxes that require a few satangs worth of hyacinth fiber to make.