Product and food technology in Thailand and other ASEAN member countries are expecting to widen their market reach this 2015. The OTOP community in Thailand are flowing with new innovation in terms of product uniqueness and authenticity. Though the rich ideas of local business operators is enough to compete with products from the known conglomerates, support from local government, academic sector, and the international business organizations are not within reach.
In some worst marketing scenarios conglomerates are always phishing some innovative ideas not from the universities but from the local OTOP producers. Securing the patents of these OTOP products is the obligation of the local and International governments to make sure that the SME business is secured in terms of product and technology ownership not only in Thailand but other ASEAN member countries as well. To the academic societies and universities, why support the conglomerates in terms of research and innovation when our community is in great need of our academic research help.