Quantity of Plastic Wastes and Trend of Future Food Industry – For Which Direction Thailand Is Heading When 5 Trends in 2020 Are Getting Hot
Quantity of Plastic Wastes and Trend of Future Food Industry – For Which Direction
Thailand Is Heading When 5 Trends in 2020 Are Getting Hot
Over in the past, the Malaysian government found the plastic wastes in containers following the inspections and announced to send 150 containers back to 13 countries after the plastic wastes were illegally imported by waste disposal companies in Malaysia consequently resulting in the Malaysian Environment Minister to make an announcement that such act of Malaysia is to make the world know that “Malaysia is not the world’s waste dumping place”. It is considered an absolutely clear statement denoting the importance on the protection of the country’s environment. In the past, the Malaysian government announced the closure of more than 200 illegal plastic waste disposal plants in Malaysia and announced to wage a war over the plastic waste problem in Malaysia.
In the past, Southeast Asian countries became the destination countries where garbage were transported for dumping or disposal after China’s announcements for non- acceptance of imported wastes for disposal since 2018, consequently resulting in many Chinese waste disposal companies to move factories to Southeast Asia instead, especially, to Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
In Thailand, standards have been introduced to reduce the use of plastic bags in large supermarkets such as Big C, Lotus, or even 7-Eleven. Other than helping to reduce the waste quantities and preserve the environments, the campaign to stop using the garbage bags will also help to adjust consumers’ behavior to make use of natural resources most worthily. The average amount of plastic wastes generated each year is 2 million tons where the cause of which is due to the expansions of urban communities. With the increase in the amount of the wastes every year coupled with the imports of plastic wastes from foreign countries for disposals in the factories located in Thailand, a tremendously large amount of plastic wastes is therefore channeled into the disposal cycle. The consequence is that various forms of pollutions: such as; water, air and soil are generated. Hence, it is probable that Thailand may have to declare war on the disposal of plastic wastes in the future suchlike in Malaysia if the waste management should not be good enough.
The Future World Food Industry Development
The direction of Thai industrial development in 2020, which Ministry of Industry playing the main host, has assigned the Office of Industrial Economics (OE), being the host of the integrated budget for the development of industry of the future, revealed that in 2020, the budget of over 1 billion Baht had been allocated with the target set to drive 4 major industrial groups: namely; food industry of the future, biological industry, modern automotive industry and robot and automation industry with the aim to increase the productivity productions by at least 2.2% to successfully drive the targeted industry. It is considered a very challenging problem for Agencies involved in driving Thailand’s industry. The private sector also considers this job somewhat a truly hard work for this mission.
Nevertheless, the matter which we had better look at is the food industry of the future as to which direction and trend it has been driven and developed because the Thai food industry is considered one of the main vessels in driving the country’s economy. Yet, it has not been talked about much, but, has been quietly growing up though. The coincidence with the plastic bag management problems that has currently been adjusted which may be advantageous and disadvantageous to some people in the food industry could have made the matter of Thai food industry of the future not to be talked about much. Thus, it is worthwhile to seriously keep an eye on the trend as to how the development of the whole food industry system in Thailand for sustainability in the future will be.
On the part of the development of food industry of the future, Ministry of Industry has proposed the Action Plan for the Development of Food Processing Industry, 2019-2028, that needs to be approved by the Cabinet first which is expected to come out soon. The food industry of the future driving plan contains a long-term goal in pushing Thailand to be the food production hub of ASEAN and that for this purpose, a budget of over 100 million Baht has been allocated in 2020 to be used in food innovation developments through Food Innopolis Project which is the Center for Research and Development to Enhance Food Potentials with Technology and also to create new breeds of start-up entrepreneurs targeted for 1,000 persons all along with the driving of the foundation economy.
5 Hottest Trends of this Year
What will be the changes in 2020? To this matter, the experts in food and beverage industry look at it that the trend seen in 2019 which has just passed by, is the trend on food for health, clean food and food with main component made from plant-based materials which will continue to carry on into this year and add more concentration. For this year trend, the main influence will be received from consumers who will have more awareness and responsibility whether it is the responsibility for their own health or to the world and the environments. Here are the top 5 trends that websites: www.foodbev.com has collected:
- Snacks; or snacks being products good for health and more comfortable which consumers paying attention on their health are looking for to meet their needs both on the nutrition and quenching hunger amidst the busy lifestyle under the pressure of tight works or activities where recess time for them is seldom and the snacks have nutritional value. Therefore, over the past few years, snacks have tremendously grown up throughout the world which should likely be a strong trend in 2020.
- Sugar-free food trend; or food that can be sweetened with a new choice. Of course, consumers in this era who care for their health have tried to avoid foods rich in sugar that will lead to weight gain and many forms of illness. They are therefore looking for new alternatives that can provide sweetness and good flavor but being friendly to health. At the same time, such trend has made food manufacturers exert their efforts to find alternatives for consumers.
- Food trend for occasional vegetarians; also known as Flexitarians. They don’t want to eat meat or are trying to reduce meat consumption, however, they are not vegetarians or vegan at all the times. Food manufacturing companies and retailed sellers therefore seek newly alternative products to respond to the needs of this consumer group.
- Testy sizzling drink trend; but low in sugars and calories. Previously, consumers who cared for their health had tried to look for the alternatives for social function drinks that helped them feel fun and relaxed without the feeling of guilty about their health. Therefore, soda-flavored soft drinks refreshed without sugar are becoming a popular trend in place of drinks for social function and relaxation.
Eat them all out trend; or no food waste is a hot trend in many countries around the world which is going all along with the circular economy in which the emphasis is placed on the use of resources to maximize the benefits and leave the food to remain the garbage as least as possible.
