Blonde Barbie dolls dressed in Thai sarongs and cute paper lanterns are just a couple of the 'best' Thai products on offer to Thai domestic-flight passengers. But this may not be quite what the Japanese pioneer of the 'one village, one product' project envisaged when he advised Thailand to adopt his innovative economic scheme.
Governor Morihiko Hiramatsu kick-started the moribund economy of Oita prefecture on Japan's Kyushu Island in the 1980s. Now, his idea is beginning to catch on in China. But it is Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government that is pushing ahead with the scheme.
An entrepreneur turned politician, Mr Thaksin has been shrewd in playing to the masses. His populist policies, like loans of one million baht (HK$188,000) to villages and his 30-baht-a-visit hospital scheme, have been well received. But critics grumble that, unlike Mr Hiramatsu's efforts, too little thought has gone into implementing the scheme.
Two years after it was introduced, 7,000 Thai villages are producing everything from wickerwork to wine. But with thousands of products seeking a market at home and abroad, the Thai government's scheme may be a victim of its own success.
In theory, the 'one village, one product' idea is sound - use local skills, designs and ideas to help villagers make money. But products need markets.
With Barbie dolls and crates of wine piling up, the government has called in a university to help. Supriya Kuandachakupt, dean of Kasetsart University's economics faculty, says they will seek out the 'product champions'.