Development Guidelines of Traditional Silk Products of Khmer Ethnic Group to Increase Value from the Community Local Economy

Abstract

          This research objectives aimed to study the value chain of silk products of the Khmer ethnic group and to provide the development guidelines for value-added on the silk product value chain from the foundation economy of Ban Sawai Silk Weaving Group to the global market. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and questionnaire. The results found that: the information among the upstream activities, midstream activities and downstream activities were in the same direction. The main activities of silk products value chain were considered in 5 aspects (production input, operation and production process, product distribution, marketing and sales, and service) found at a moderate level. The supporting activities of the value chain of silk products in all 4 aspects, revealed the overall at a moderate level. Guidelines for value chain development are considered in following aspects; the production input is still a weakness of the Group since there is a lack of a suitable areas for sericulture. For operation and production process, uncertainty about the weaving duration is the main problem as well as lacking of unique packaging that represents the group's identity. For marketing and sales, there is no specialized sales and services department. The supporting activities, the basic infrastructure is still a weakness as well as lack of full cooperation among group. In human resource management, lacks of calculating costs skill is the problem while in term of technological development, still unable to use the mobile banking system to cover customers as well as unable to collecting customer information in a database. Finally, for resource management, the cultivation of local natural plants has not yet been promoted to grow and provide natural dyes.