Maintaining the lead

Thailand is the world leader in the production and export of many agricultural products, including rice, cassava, sugar and rubber. It is the 14th largest agricultural and food exporter in the world (or the 5th largest if all the European countries are considered as a single community). The food and agriculture industry is therefore an important contributor to the economy. However, to maintain its lead and share in the world market, the industry must overcome several challenges including productivity, quality and food safety and one of the biggest challenges facing Thailand is its continued ability to export agricultural commodities to the USA and the EU.

Thailand can differentiate its products from its low cost competitors by establishing an image as producers with high food safety standards. In addition, for the food and agriculture industry to overcome these challenges and remain competitive, it must tap biotechnology to achieve greater productivity and higher quality in production – maintaining Thailand’s edge in the global agriculture market.

Under the National Biotechnology Policy Framework (NBPF), Thailand will use biotechnology to enhance its competitiveness in the agriculture and food industries. The goal is to increase the export value of the country’s raw and processed agricultural products to 1.2 trillion Baht by the end of this year, which is over 3 times the 2002 export value.

Essentially, the NBPF will place emphasis on applying core technologies such as genomics, plant and animal breeding (by means of molecular breeding) and bioinformatics to accelerate development in agricultural and food production. In the mid-seventies, Thailand was one of the first countries in the region to utilize biotechnology to increase agricultural productivity. This had led to numerous government-supported commercial successes.