In response to these dilemmas, the Royal Thai government under the mission of the Queen Sirikit Department of Sericulture set up a ‘Peacock’ emblem (“ตรา
นกยูงพระราชทาน”
in Thai) to authenticate Thai silk and protect it from imitations. The peacock emblem is used as a guarantee of quality and it comes in four different colors (Royal Thai Silk “นกยูงสีทอง”, Classic Thai Silk
“นกยูงสีเงิน”, Thai Silk “นกยูงสีน้ําเงิน”, and Thai Silk Blend “นกยูงสี
เขียว”) based on specific silk types and production processes. Furthermore, there is an attempt to encourage Thai silk manufacturers to produce in traditional ways, without using chemical products and by adopting eco-friendly voluntary standards. They expected that this may be a good strategy to penetrate the global silk market especially in Italy, France, and the UK, which are the dominant European players in the silk industry. However, lack of knowledge in both the supplier and consumer side is still the main problem in assessing the potential of Thai natural and organic silk fabric (and its final products) in Europe. Therefore, this study is the first step to explore the potential and barriers these products may have in Italy, France and the UK which are the main silk players of the EU market. This study aims (1) to obtain indications about the interest of target groups to import and distribute Thai natural/organic silk fabric and final products in Italy, France and the United Kingdom, (2) to explore the potential and barriers of natural/organic silk fabric and final products from Thailand in Italy, France and United Kingdom (3) to explore the possibility to use natural and organic textile standards (i.e., the Global Organic Textile Standard - GOTS) to foster the competitiveness of Thai natural and organic silks in the European market. The study takes the form of exploratory research in order to define and gain insight in the interest of European operators toward Thai natural/organic silk fabric and final products. A qualitative approach is selected to study this particular topic in depth since we are in the initial stage to introduce these products to the market (Myers, 2009). The personal in-depth interviews with European importers and distributors of natural/organic silk fabric and final products are structured as conversation-like dialogues according to a semi-structured interview outline via telephone (or face-to-face if possible). Questions are open-ended to enable the respondents to raise topics or issues which were most salient to them. The
2