When Anothai Kongwattana decided to open a healthful vegetarian restaurant in Bangkok she ran into one minor problem: She couldn't find any organic vegetables on the market.

Her solution was to launch her own organic farm. With the help of her husband, Gaan Ritkhachorn, the couple launched the "Pluk Rak," or "Grow Love" Farm in Ratchaburi, a two-hour drive from Bangkok, in June 1999.

By August 2000, it was supplying truckloads of organically grown vegetables to the Anothai Restaurant, now a well-established eatery among health-conscious gourmands.

"They are one of the lighthouses," said Burghard Rauschelbach, director of an organic project of German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), a German government aid agency, in Thailand. "Anothai's farm ...［really is］working according to organic standards."

Remarkably, although Thailand ranks as one of world's leading food exporters and has aspirations to become "the kitchen of the world," the kingdom ranks 13th in Asia among organic food producers.

Organic crops are considerably more expensive to grow than their conventional cousins, which is one reason most farmers shun them.

And some of the "organic" products on sale in Bangkok are not really organic. While there is an organic certification process in place for exported products, there are not similar standards placed on domestically sold organic foods.

"The point is, if Thailand wants to become the organic food kitchen of the world their government will have to invest in it," said GTZ's Rauschelbach.