EGAT and National Food Institute promote local food products to global market
25 September 2023EGAT has proceeded to the second phase of collaboration with National Food Institute to promote food products, produced by communities surrounding EGAT areas, to national and global markets. Its objective is to create more income and promote sustainable growth for the communities.
Mr. Chaiwut Lakmuang, Assistant Governor – Sustainability Management of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), and Mrs. Anong Paijitprapapon, President of National Food Institute (NFI), signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the capability development of EGAT community enterprises to enhance competitiveness of local products in the food industry, phase 2. On this occasion, serving as the witnesses, Mr. Sucheep Meethom, Assistant Governor – Renewable Power Plant of EGAT, and Miss Nuchjarin Ketnil, Vice President of Food Innovation Department of NFI also signed the MOU on September 19, 2023 at EGAT Headquarters.
Mr. Chaiwut Lakmuang, EGAT Assistant Governor – Sustainability Management, said that EGAT has driven social responsibility strategy along with sustainability on natural resources, environment, and energy, as well as enhancing quality of life and economic growth. EGAT has set a target to boost local economy so that communities surrounding EGAT’s dams, power plants, and transmission lines can be self-reliant from the promotion of food, health, energy, and tourism. This complies with the needs of the communities over the years. In 2022, EGAT collaborated with NFI, Ministry of Industry to use local raw materials and surplus ingredients integrated with food innovations to produce safe food and improve the existing products to become the new “saleable” products required by the market to enter the food industry business. The collaboration led to the increase of sales for over 30% in the last year while reducing cost and waste, which aligns with the BCG Model. It also supports the national strategy aimed at positioning Thailand as a leader in high-value agricultural and agro-processing products and promotes local economy toward Green Social Business. Therefore, it is a good opportunity to develop the Thai food industry with the aim to promote local food products to enter national and global markets.
The food products being developed in the second phrase will focus on health benefits, in response to the self-care trend. The products include functional food; plant-based food; personalized diet such as vegan and keto; low-sugar, low-fat, and low-sodium food and beverage; as well as products with herbal ingredients and natural extracts.
Mrs. Anong Paijitprapapon, President of National Food Institute (NFI), added that NFI and EGAT have collaborated to enhance capabilities of community enterprises around EGAT’s power plants, dams, and transmission lines. This collaboration has led to the development of community products based on health concept and BCG resource efficiency to improve production standards, safety, and quality, as well as to enhance competitiveness and promote local economy toward sustainability. NFI has a four-dimensional value creation approach: TRUST is to build public confidence in food safety and quality, VALUE is to create added value throughout the supply chain through the use of technology and innovation, POWER is to develop capabilities and provide knowledge to communities around EGAT power plants, dams, and transmission lines, and SPEED is to support the communities to access the information and target markets within a short time, paving the way toward sustainable competitiveness.