September 17, 2010

Thailand and Netherlands collaborate to boost "Food Valley"

 

The Thai food industry has joined forces with the Netherlands to brand Thailand as Asia's "Food Valley" to promote more research and development in the sector and add more value to Thai exports, according to reports.

The initiative will support the industry's target to lift its export value to THB1 trillion in three years, said Visit Limprana, chairman of the Food Processing Industry Club at the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).

Located in Wageningen, the Netherlands' Food Valley is a cluster of about 1,440 food and agriculture-related companies with 230 million in new investments.

About 70 science companies and 20 research institutes operate in the valley, employing 15,000 scientists. The activities there cover the areas of food and nutritional science, food safety, plant breeding and seeding technology, and biodiesel and biomass technology.

The Netherlands is the No. 1 destination of Thai exports to the EU, with value of US$1.75 billion in the first half of this year. Food and food-related products contribute 12% of Thailand's exports to the Netherlands, according to the Dutch Embassy in Thailand.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands is the second largest exporter of agri-food products globally after the US. Its food sector has a turnover of US$54 billion of which US$23 billion comes from exports.

Visit said Thailand's food exports might fall short of the target of THB820 billion this year as the sector has been adversely affected by the sharp gains of the Thai baht, now trading above 31 baht against the dollar.

Exporters of rice, tapioca, and sugar have been hurt the most due to low margins. Year-on-year export growth might fall below 10% in the final quarter, compared with over 20% in the first six months, he added.