The current challenge to meet consumer demands to increase food production and maintain food security is becoming more complex due to climate change, land degradation, and the conversion of forests. The limited capacity of smallholder farmers as food producers is the suspicion of a shift in R&D priorities from agriculture to industry in Southeast Asia and other developing countries, followed by a widening gap in the absorption capacity of R&D. This path leads to severe threats to food security in most developing countries.
Sustainable agriculture cannot be achieved only by consistent adherence to ecological principles. Agriculture should aim to provide economic benefits and incentivise farmers to stay in their current roles as critical actors in food production and innovation process.
Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) attempted to support Thai and international investors and encourage them to invest in research and development in food industry. The government expected that Agro-food industry will generate 7% of GDP focusing on research and development and productivity improvement.
This study aims to examine the current practices of agro-food innovations in Thailand, for developing new business models by addressing the challenges and exploiting the opportunities. Eight business experts and practitioners have been interviewed as the first step qualitative research to develop some understandings on the complexity of the current practices.
The current practices in the Thailand agro-food industry have been examined from an innovation perspective, covering Initiation, Collaboration, Local Customization, Product Innovation, Process Innovation, Position Innovation, and Paradigm Innovation.
The thematic analysis indicates that Thailand's agriculture and food industries are dynamic and diverse, with opportunities for new products to target five distinctive food categories, namely mass market, premium, health and beauty, niche, and low cost.
The emerging Information Technologies and the varied consumer demands have created opportunities for product innovation, echoed by investment capital and the emerging technologies with new start-ups in the food industry. For instance, the consumers have displayed their shifting trends in favor of time-saving, plant-based, and nutrition rich agro-food products.
However, the challenging issues remain in realizing the full potentials of the agro-food innovation in Thailand, which include but not limited to financial and quality infrastructural availabilities, cultural diversity and regulatory constrains, which consequently create considerable challenges for the collaborations between different businesses to developing new products. The challenges must be addressed for collaborations between the engaged parties which is imperative for agro-foods innovation.