Bouasanith (Nok), the owner of Khounkhao Sold Co., Ltd, founded the company in 2023 with a clear mission: reduce agricultural waste by optimizing how local resources are used. As an importer and exporter of food products, the company goes beyond traditional trade by transforming bananas\u2014an abundant fruit in the region\u2014into a wide range of high-value, sustainable products.<\/p>\n
The business concept grew from Nok\u2019s own village, where banana trees were plentiful but much of their potential was being left unused. Rather than seeing surplus bananas and byproducts as waste, Nok saw an opportunity to design a circular, resource-efficient model that maximizes the value of every part of the banana plant.<\/p>\n
Khounkhao Sold Co., Ltd uses bananas in food products and healthy snacks, while also extracting fibers from the banana tree for use in products and machinery. Even the byproducts are put to work: the water produced during fiber extraction is repurposed into organic fertilizer, and banana roots are transformed into flour that can be used to make noodles.<\/p>\n
By treating the banana tree as a complete resource\u2014not a single-use crop\u2014the company ensures that as close to nothing as possible is discarded. The result is a practical waste-reduction system that creates new economic opportunities while supporting the community and protecting the environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"template":"","category-actor":[221],"province":[194],"scale":[222],"sector":[236,231],"topic":[158,156],"class_list":["post-14702","champion","type-champion","status-publish","hentry","category-actor-private-sector","province-luang-prabang","scale-national","sector-technology-and-innovation","sector-trade-and-logistics","topic-market-access-and-value-added-agro-products","topic-traditional-crop-cultivation-and-agrobiodiversity"],"acf":{"pkl_story_headline":"Reducing Waste by Optimizing Every Banana Resource","pkl_story_authors":"Bouavone Thipphavanh and Albrecht Ehrensperger","pkl_story_image":"","pkl_story_video":"","pkl_story_image_credits":"","pkl_story_file":null,"photo_gallery":{"pkl_photo_gallery":[[{"id":14720,"title":"599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n","caption":"","full_image_url":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n.jpg","thumbnail_image_url":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-150x150.jpg","large_srcset":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n.jpg 1200w","medium_srcset":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n.jpg 1200w","media_details":{"width":1200,"height":1600,"sizes":{"medium":{"file":"599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-225x300.jpg","width":225,"height":300,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":15764,"source_url":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-225x300.jpg"},"large":{"file":"599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-768x1024.jpg","width":768,"height":1024,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":121054,"source_url":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-768x1024.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":7627,"source_url":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-768x1024.jpg","width":768,"height":1024,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":121054,"source_url":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-768x1024.jpg"},"1536x1536":{"file":"599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-1152x1536.jpg","width":1152,"height":1536,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":225961,"source_url":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/599635480_1595303708573550_5658808970741332923_n-1152x1536.jpg"}}},"alt_text":"","url":"","target":""}]]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/champion\/14702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/champion"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/champion"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category-actor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category-actor?post=14702"},{"taxonomy":"province","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/province?post=14702"},{"taxonomy":"scale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scale?post=14702"},{"taxonomy":"sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sector?post=14702"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phakhaolao.la\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=14702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}