Thailand’s farm and food industry has been constantly incorporating new innovations in an effort to meet the increasingly sophisticated demands for innovative foods of a global market that is becoming swamped with virtually endless options.
Staying ahead of the game in this hugely competitive environment requires access to a wide diversity of raw materials on vast agricultural plantations and a well-developed supply chain. Leveraging advancements in digitalization and utilising deep technology such as 3D printing, AI and big data, the Thai agri-food industry is also producing foods that align with mainstream intelligence technology as well as addressing environmental concerns, while increasing transparency of production processes and improving safety standards.
The Thai government has identified “Future Food” as an industry that will become a key economic driving engine, as a combination of a passionate new generation of food producers, digitalization and food technology has elevated Thailand’s place to a global level in this exciting new industry. The government’s food development plan focuses on four areas: building new entrepreneurs, scaling innovations, utilising online marketing platforms and improving the ease of doing business. The government’s policy to streamline its digital databases and the operations of all of its agencies, as directed by an act enacted in 2019, will further enhance Thailand’s standing as one of the most promising locations for investment in the food industry.
The Thai government envisages Thailand becoming a key global player in the “Future Food” market – a new genre of food that is both functional and novel, often involving R&D and technology-enabled production processes and services.
“SPACE-F”2, Thailand’s first global food tech start-up incubator and accelerator, is now running Batch-II acceleration. Run by the National Innovation Agency, Mahidol University and Thai multinational food conglomerates, SPACE-F aims to serve as a platform on which promising entrepreneurs can receive mentorship and guidance from corporations, venture capital firms, corporate venture capital firms, and agencies that will empower them to scale up their food tech start-ups to succeed on the global scale. Reflecting their interest in food tech start-ups, local multinational food companies have also teamed up with start-up funds to invest in food tech start-ups worldwide.
The Thailand Board of Investment has also introduced tax incentives throughout the supply chain of the agri-food businesses, with a special focus on technology in the form of R&D, productivity enhancement, agri-tech, high-technology quality testing, plant factories and sustainability certification
Source: Bangkok Post
Read the full article and learn more about the tax incentives here
