Raitong Organics Farm

 

Fri, 6 Feb 2015

 

VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE

Suspension of the

CSA Munching Box

programme for 6 months

 

To all of our loyal customers and friends of the CSA Munching Box,

 

It is with great sadness that we have to write this letter to you all.

 

We created the CSA Munching Box almost 3 years ago with the hope that we might be able to change part of the food landscape in Bangkok, especially in the choices people make with regards to the sources and quality of the foods they choose to eat. Coupled with this, the CSA Munching Box aimed to work directly with small-scale farmers in Thailand to provide them with the stable market and fair pricing for their produce, such that ever greater areas of land could come under organic cultivation, something which resonated deeply with our personal and company’s collective sense of environmental, social and economic responsibility.

 

Since 1 June 2012, we have delivered tens of thousands of boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables through rain and shine, protest and peace, from season to season, to up to 250 customers’ homes per week all over Bangkok and surrounds. To meet this demand for seasonal and fresh organic produce, we slowly built up a steady network of some 70 farmers around the country, from Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son in the north, to Prachuabkirikhan in the south, Chonburi and Chantaburi in the east and Wang Nam Kiew, Sisaket, Yasothorn and Surin in the north-east.  

 

And, in spite of becoming the biggest and most well-known CSA programme in Bangkok in such a short space of time, the challenges of such a venture that ensures fairness for farmers through better and more stable pricing structures, together with trying our level-best to make sure that our subscribers received the produces they were promised at the low possible price we could offer, the slow and erratic growth rates on the consumer side have meant that we are no longer able to justify the operational costs and fiscal risk of the CSA Munching Box.

 

And so, after much internal deliberation for the past year, we have finally decided to suspend the CSA Munching Box programme for the next 6 months, effective this week (i.e., the final deliveries take place on Friday 6 February). This suspension period will enable us to take a much more careful look at our internal operations and to make a more informed decision on next steps. In spite of suspending the CSA Munching Box programme, rest assured that our team over here at Raitong Organics Farm is still very much committed to our mission of:

​

·  Promoting organic and sustainable farming as a way to help improve the livelihoods of farmers in Thailand and by creating better value for agricultural products, and

 

·  Producing clean, safe, nutritious and healthy products as a better choice for our consumers by committing ourselves to using only organic and only 100% natural ingredients as far as possible.

 

For all of you that are currently receiving deliveries from us, we hope you understand the situation we find ourselves in. We would like to offer you a few options re. your outstanding deliveries and ensuring you’re compensated fairly for your current credit balance:

​

1. You can bear with us until July 2015, after which you can either continue with your deliveries

  (if we decide to continue with the Munching Box) or request a refund.

 

2. Ask for a refund, which we will pay back to you as soon as we can.

 

3. Settle your remaining balance in addon products, with a minimum of 1,000 baht in items ordered per week. This includes the development of a chicken egg programme with the primary school in our community in Sisaket, which we are hoping to begin very soon.

 

4. Using your remaining balance to purchase fresh fruit/vegetables and other grocery items from our grocery store (currently in development) over here at our hub in Bang Chak (next to Sukhumvit Soi 60).

 

We will be calculating all the remaining credit balances this week and next, so we should be able to let each of you know how much money is owed to you and give you an idea of refund periods.

 

Should you have any additional questions and/or advice, please feel free to drop us an email at csa@raitongorganicsfarm.com or come see us at our office, and we’ll be happy to chat more. You can also keep following our latest work via Facebook (@RaitongOrganicsFarm) and Twitter (@RaitongOrganics), and of course on our website (http://raitongorganicsfarm.com).

 

Once again though, we would like to sincerely thank all of you for supporting our work for the past 3 years, and for your continued support either through purchasing our other products, sharing your thoughts and advice with us, partnering with us on new ventures, and just generally having been the most awesome-est customers we could ever have hoped to have had!

 

All the very best from all of us at Raitong Organics Farm!

 

 

 

 

https://bk.asia-city.com/restaurants/news/raitong-organic-farm-weekly-delivery

 

Jul 02, 2012 Raitong Organics Farm (in Srisaket) is rolling out a weekly subscription-based delivery of seasonal organic fresh fruit and vegetables, under the name CSA Munching Box. The CSA stands for community-supported agriculture, with the produce mostly sourced from Srisaket. It’s all seasonal so you don’t know exactly what you’ll get. But don’t worry if you get vegetables you’re unfamiliar with, as they will attach a few helpful recipes to your basket. A three-month subscription is B4,200 plus a weekly delivery charge of B50. Check it out at www.raitongorganicsfarm.com.