DOI: 10.14457/tu.the.2016.404
title: An overview of Thai aromatic coconut exporting industry

description: An overview of Thai aromatic coconut exporting industry is a part of international business topic in industry and competitor analysis study. Nowadays, coconut consumption keeps increasing rapidly because of the global health trend. In fact, coconut contains many nutrients and benefits. One of the most famous popular types of coconut is “an aromatic coconut” which is a signature of Thai fruits. Due to the global health trend and unique aromatic function, there is a high demand from other countries. Consequently, the exporting value of aromatic coconut increases dramatically during the last decade.However, due to high potential demand, many companies enter into this industry. With the intense competition especially from Chinese players, many Thai aromatic coconut exporters suffer and fail.Therefore, this study aims to provide an overview of the competitive landscape of the aromatic coconut exporting industry and the successful players’ strategy and key success factors to answer a strategic question of “How these players can compete and penetrate the international market sustainably?” In order to achieve the purpose, secondary and primary data were implemented. In-depth interview was conducted with exporters, growers, and importers of Thai aromatic coconut. (2)The result reveals that there are two types of exporters which are big and small players. Both players perceive that Thai aromatic coconut exporting industry will be growth in short and long term.For big players, they perceive that quality and cost are the most important key success factors. Also, their competitive advantages are large resources of supply, high capital investment, diverse distribution channels, and innovation. Their major challenges are supply fluctuation, intense competition, and high bargaining power of the growers. So, they deal with these challenges by expanding a source of supply, creating a union, investing in R&D.For small players, most of them export to only China which are different from big players who export to a number of countries. Also, relationship with growers and product variety are the key success factors because they do not have power to control quality and cost compared with those big players. In additional, their competitive advantages are long term relationship with growers and fruit variety. They do not depend on selling coconut only, but they sell many Thai fruits to stabilize their revenue. In term of challenges, their perceptions toward challenges are similar to big players which are supply fluctuation and intense competition. However, their strategies are different from big players. In fact, they deal with these challenges by keep continuous buying from growers to lock the supply. Also, they improve the production to meet the international standard. So, they can expand market to other countries and avoid intense competition in China.For mode of entry, it depends on the risk degree in which exporters are willing to take and the amount of capital investment. Normally, both small and big exporters export directly to importers in other countries.Last but not least, a successful exporter must understand the needs’ of key stakeholders which are growers and importers. Firstly, growers are satisfied when they have a continuous order and get support for R&D about the productivity. Lastly, for importers, they prefer a fix price program with a good quality of coconut.