For a young Thai with a university degree, fluent English and work experience in the U.S., Walaiporn Phumirat made an unlikely career choice. While many of her former classmates were competing for city jobs, she returned to her rustic village in Chiang Rai Province, in the once-notorious Golden Triangle, and became an organic strawberry farmer.
In the five years since then, Walaiporn, 32, has become a one-person rural success story, deftly using social media (she has 20,000 Facebook followers) and much-improved airline connections to establish a growing market for her Backyard Strawberry brand in Bangkok, 800km to the south.
