Thailand is a leading global supplier of a wide variety of commodities and/or products including rice, rubber, cassava, sugar, seafood, poultry meat, frozen, ready-to-eat foods and processed fruits and vegetables.
The country is a regional and global food manufacturer and processor, particularly for tuna and prawns. Thai Union Frozen is the world’s biggest processor of seafood products. Thailand is home to one of the biggest agribusiness conglomerates, the Charoen Pokphand Group (CP), which has extensive investments and production in over 20 countries around the world. Other Thai agribusiness conglomerates are looking at diversification and expansion internationally.
Thailand’s tourism and hospitality industry, featuring major local and multinational hotel and restaurant chains, uses considerable imported food needs. The food and beverage manufacturing industry uses some Australian ingredients, including dairy products, food additives and flavourings and cereals.
Though Thailand has a developing dairy production industry supplemented by imports of Australian Guernsey cattle, processed dairy products will still need to be imported due to 65 per cent of annual needs.
Australian Brahman cattle have been sold to Thailand to improve the quality of beef production and with the finalisation of the live cattle protocol in December 2014, Australian feeder and slaughter cattle to be shipped to Thailand for the first time. Industry experts anticipate that around 30 000 heads of cattle could be exported to Thailand in 2015.
International cuisine has become increasingly popular among Thais in the last 10 years, with a recent rise of Japanese-themed restaurants. Imported food items to meet the demands of the food service industry include: