GUIDELINES ON DRIVING THAILAND’S FUTURE FOOD INDUSTRY THROUGH SCIENCE, RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

 

conomy, accounting for more than one-seventh of the country’s GDP and serving as a major export sector, representing nearly one-fifth of total exports. In addition, the sector employs more than one-third of the national workforce. However, the world has undergone significant transformations in recent years, including geopolitical tensions, climate disruption, increasingly stringent trade measures, and the transition toward an aging society. These global changes have compelled Thailand’s agri-food industry to adapt in order to seize emerging opportunities while effectively managing associated risks.

 

At present, the industry faces several key challenges, including:

 

1. The majority of Thailand’s agricultural and food exports remain traditional products with relatively low value added.
2. Conventional agricultural practices, characterized by low levels of technology adoption, result in low productivity, fluctuating quality and output, as well as environmental issues such as PM2.5 emissions from agricultural activities.

 

Accordingly, a comprehensive Agri-Food Industrial Transformation is required, focusing on two critical dimensions:

 

1. Increasing the market share and value of Future Food, which emphasizes health, sustainability, and the application of technology and innovation in production, positioning it as a new growth engine for Thailand’s food industry.

2. Transitioning from traditional agriculture toward modern, technology-driven, and sustainable farming systems.

 

This proposal places particular emphasis on expandingthe share of high-value products in the Future Food market.

 

Future Food refers to food products that offer nutritional benefits, are safe for consumption, and are produced through sustainable processes enabled by technology and innovation. These products can be categorized into four main groups:

 

1. Health foods and functional ingredients.
2. Medical foods and personalized nutrition.
3. Organic products and minimally processed foods.
4. Alternative proteins.

 

Thailand possesses a wide range of high-potential local raw materials, including pigmented rice, modified tapioca starch, cocoa, tea, coffee, coconut, herbs, and bio-based materials. These resources can be further developed into high value-added products such as vitamin-enriched and probiotic beverages, as well as alternative protein products derived from agricultural sources including soybeans, mung beans, Wolffia (duckweed), mushrooms, edible insects, and indigenous algae.

 

Nevertheless, Thailand’s future food industry continues to face significant bottlenecks along the value chain of functional ingredients and protein production. At the upstream level, more efficient raw material management is required. At the midstream level, domestic production of functional ingredients and protein ingredients remains insufficient. Downstream, research on bioactive compounds derived from Thai raw materials, as well as clinical trial data, is still limited.

 

Therefore, the sustainable development of Thailand’s future food industry necessitates integrated development across the entire value chain in order to reduce reliance on imports, enhance national competitiveness, and strengthen linkages between research and industrial applications.

 

In response, the “Proposal for Driving Thailand’s Future Food Industry through Science, Research, and Innovation” has been formulated. The objective is to leverage science, research, and innovation to support structural transformation in Thailand’s agri-food production and export sectors by increasing the share of products that meet future market demands, upgrading technological capabilities, and establishing future food as a key new growth engine of the Thai agri-food industry.

 

The key targets to be achieved by 2027 include increasing the value of the future food industry to THB 500 billion, while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 0.3 million tons of CO2 equivalent, through the following three strategic pillars:

 

1. Attracting investment in advanced extraction and processing technologies to establish a midstream industry for functional ingredients and proteins, through BOI support in identifying and attracting companies with advanced production technologies, and granting appropriate investment incentives.
2. Establishing R&D consortia to manage collaborative networks within the future food industry, particularly in functional ingredients and proteins, supported by the Science, Research and Innovation Promotion Fund.
3. Developing market-enabling standards and regulatory systems, including upgrading standards and certification schemes for health foods, beverages, and functional ingredients; piloting a functional food claim registration system (FFC Thailand Sandbox); and developing positive lists of key ingredients to facilitate future food product registration.

 

Implementation of the “Proposal for Driving Thailand’s Future Food Industry through Science, Research, and Innovation” is expected to increase the share of future food products to 25% of the total agri-food industry by 2032, while generating the following key outcomes:

 

• Five Thai functional ingredient and advanced protein manufacturers integrated into global value chains.
• Attraction of investment from five advanced technology companies, totaling THB 3 billion.
• A threefold increase in farmers’ income within four years.
• Enhanced industrial capability to produce functional extracts and proteins with purity levels exceeding 60%.
• A 10% increase in agricultural productivity for sectors integrated into the future food industry.
• Export value rising to THB 220 billion.
• Domestic market value reaching THB 280 billion.