The Royal Project Festival 2007

Queen opens Royal Project Festival in honour of King

Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by HRH Princess Somsavali, yesterday presided over the opening ceremony of the Royal Project Festival. They spent more than an hour visiting all the booths and buying produce from farmers.

Held for 19 consecutive years, the festival is larger than ever this year and occupies an area of more than 4,000 square metres (43,055 square feet) at CentralWorld shopping centre in Bangkok. Its theme is "His Majesty's kindness is like a big tree's branches that provide shelter for Thailand" and celebrates the King's 80th birthday in December.

Hundreds of people involved with the Royal Projects, the Royal Chitralada Project and Projects under the Royal Initiative gathered to welcome the Queen and the Princess. Among the foods purchased by the pair were radicchio and sweet corn - the latter was sold out as the Princess took all of them.

Prince Bhisatej Rajani, chairman of the Royal Project Foundation, said this year's event was not only the largest but also represented the progress of research and development under the Royal Projects. The highlight of the festival is an exhibition to honour the King and Royal Family members, featuring photos of their visits to the Royal Projects. The event will be a one-stop learning centre about the Royal Projects. So far more than 80 kinds of produce have been successfully introduced under the scheme, including fresh herbs, flowers, rainbow trout and claw crayfish.

The long-established Doikham brand is launching six new products at the event, including roselle mixed with honey juice, strawberry juice, low-sugar dried tomato and sugar-free jam. Prince Bhisatej's eldest daughter, MR Datcharabimol Tungknag, is also launching her book "Tasty in Chiang Mai" at the festival. The book is a collection of recipes of popular European and Thai dishes in Chiang Mai that use ingredients from the Royal Projects.

The festival runs until Sunday. News from The Nation (Sep 5, 07)

Learn more about the Royal Project (English version)
The Royal Project
Doikham

About the Festival
Schedule at CentralWorld
Pictures from Pantip
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