Thailand

[Loggie]

Whilst not a resident of Thailand currently, I have spent a lot of time working there off and on in the past. So let me kick off some thoughts that others can add to.

Unique challenges that Thailand presents I think would include:

1. Population spread. Whilst the country has a population of about 60 million, these are highly concentrated in and around Bangkok, but then fairly widely dispersed. Bangkok has a population of about 9 million, and the next largest cities have populations around 250 thousand and less.
2. The geography of the country makes distribution hard. It is quite long and thin, particularly in the South, meaning great distances have to be covered to reach population centres.
3. Infrastructure in country areas (roads) can make long distance transport time consuming and expensive.
4. The capital city of bangkok has good highways but traffic density is high and curfews are imposed on large trucks at certain times of the day.

Just a few ideas comments to get the discussion started!

[SupplierEvaluations]

One of my clients, a small online retail business, based in USA, deals with jewelry wholesale suppliers from Thailand all the time. I've heard only positive comments, such as "always on-time", "hassle-free", "great pictures", "quality is much better than from other Asian suppliers", "excellent communication" and so on.

[HAFIZ]

Originally Posted by Loggie

Whilst not a resident of Thailand currently, I have spent a lot of time working there off and on in the past. So let me kick off some thoughts that others can add to.

Unique challenges that Thailand presents I think would include:

1. Population spread. Whilst the country has a population of about 60 million, these are highly concentrated in and around Bangkok, but then fairly widely dispersed. Bangkok has a population of about 9 million, and the next largest cities have populations around 250 thousand and less.
2. The geography of the country makes distribution hard. It is quite long and thin, particularly in the South, meaning great distances have to be covered to reach population centres.
3. Infrastructure in country areas (roads) can make long distance transport time consuming and expensive.
4. The capital city of bangkok has good highways but traffic density is high and curfews are imposed on large trucks at certain times of the day.

Just a few ideas comments to get the discussion started!

I believe political stability should be taken into account as well.

[SupplierEvaluations]

or rather - political instability . I think it's a constant/permanent situation of this country, but nevertheless, they managed to coop with it well, at least, dealing with US buyers.

[sanjay_arora]

Originally Posted by Loggie

Whilst not a resident of Thailand currently, I have spent a lot of time working there off and on in the past. So let me kick off some thoughts that others can add to.

Unique challenges that Thailand presents I think would include:

1. Population spread. Whilst the country has a population of about 60 million, these are highly concentrated in and around Bangkok, but then fairly widely dispersed. Bangkok has a population of about 9 million, and the next largest cities have populations around 250 thousand and less.
2. The geography of the country makes distribution hard. It is quite long and thin, particularly in the South, meaning great distances have to be covered to reach population centres.
3. Infrastructure in country areas (roads) can make long distance transport time consuming and expensive.
4. The capital city of bangkok has good highways but traffic density is high and curfews are imposed on large trucks at certain times of the day.

Just a few ideas comments to get the discussion started!

Can someone address a few lines on 3PL in Thailand? What kind of operations can they handle? Can they ship if the local supplier hands over the shipment to them locally...if so how is the exporter of record handled?

We are sourcing Rice from Thailand for some of my clients and some of them wish to bypass the big exporters and buy in cash from the local smaller millers.

I wondered if local sourcing could be done, how much of it the local 3PL providers could help with?

Sanjay.