| Startup Thailand | TH |
Exploring the Future of Agricultural and Food Innovations at Startup Connext 2025: AgTech – FoodTech
Exploring the Future of Agricultural and Food Innovations at Startup Connext 2025: AgTech – FoodTech
The Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa) plays a vital role in driving Thai startups in the digital technology sector to grow systematically—from the early stages to expansion into international markets. Through initiatives such as depa GrowthLab and depa Global Launchpad, the agency nurtures and accelerates startups in fields including FinTech, EdTech, AgriTech, TravelTech, HealthTech, and IndustryTech.
Support includes both non-repayable grants and convertible funding, ranging from 200,000 THB to 5 million THB, as well as tax incentives such as capital gains tax exemptions and a 200% tax deduction for the purchase of technologies listed in the Thai Digital Catalog.
Opportunities and Challenges
The global agriculture industry is facing multiple influencing factors, including economic, technological, climate-related, and structural aspects of farming communities. One of the major disruptions in global agricultural trade is the so-called “Trump Effect”, which has resulted in new tariff barriers in certain countries, while the United States has simultaneously reduced taxes for its own domestic businesses. This has significantly affected the directions of agricultural exports and imports worldwide.
New technologies are also transforming traditional farming methods entirely. The adoption of AI and precision farming systems allows farms to boost productivity, cut costs, and address labor shortages—particularly in large-scale farms with the capacity to invest. However, Thailand’s agricultural structure remains a significant barrier: most farmers are small landholders with low incomes, high debt levels, and an average age of 59 years. This makes the adoption of new technologies slow. The positive trend, however, is the emergence of more young-generation farmers, who represent a key hope for the future of Thai agriculture.
From an environmental and policy standpoint, the Thai government has begun enforcing stricter bans on open-field burning and promoting green policies in line with ESG principles, along with measures to reduce unsustainable subsidies. These actions aim to push agriculture toward more eco-friendly practices. Meanwhile, climate change remains an uncontrollable factor—rising temperatures, seasonal variability, and the impacts of El Niño and La Niña all directly affect farmers’ yields and incomes.
All of this means that the future of agriculture is no longer just about “growing” but about “planning” — driven by data, technology, and an understanding of the global system to ensure survival and sustainable growth.
In the next 5–10 years, transformative agricultural technologies will include Precision & Smart Farming, connecting processes from upstream to downstream. Farms will be designed according to local conditions, equipped with GPS-controlled machinery and smart sensors. Plowing, planting, spraying, and harvesting will become more precise and cost-efficient. Real-time soil, water, and weather data will be analyzed by AI-powered farm management software to optimize production.
Smart Greenhouse and Smart Drip Irrigation systems will help control conditions for each crop, improving yields and quality. Post-harvest, products will enter precise processing, packaging, and logistics systems, integrated with online marketplaces and automated market-matching platforms. Farms will also adopt renewable energy sources such as solar power and agricultural material recycling technologies to enhance efficiency and sustainability.
The NIA adds that its role is to drive innovation for better quality of life, emphasizing the importance of a sustainable economy. Its focus is on applying technology and innovation in three main areas:
AI & Automation for crop breeding, precision agriculture, and real-time data analytics.
Regenerative Agriculture, promoting cover crops, bio-fertilizers, and improved soil ecosystems to create new income models.
Clean Energy & Climate Tech, encouraging renewable energy adoption, carbon capture technologies, and efficient water resource management.
A key approach for NIA is building an Innovation Ecosystem that fosters collaboration between academia, business, and society to transform startups into genuine “new economic drivers.”
Globally, investment in AgriFoodTech has grown significantly from 2015 to 2024, peaking at USD 56.3 billion in 2021 before slowing to USD 16 billion in 2024. The top-funded categories in 2024 are eGrocery (USD 2.5 billion) and Ag Biotechnology (USD 1.9 billion). The fastest-growing category is Cloud Retail Infrastructure (up 202%), while the largest declines are in Novel Farming Systems and In-Store Retail Tech (both down 47%). This reflects a shift in investor focus toward sustainable, consumer-connected agricultural technologies.
(Data from Global AgriFoodTech Investment 2015–2024, AgFunder)
In the panel discussion “Food for the Future: Tech-Driven Sustainability in the Food Chain” featuring new-generation startups, Wandee Wattanakritdee, CEO of Mui Robotics Co., Ltd., shared an interesting perspective on Food Tech development. She noted that Thailand aims to become the “Kitchen of the World,” which presents an opportunity for startups to work together to integrate AI into the food industry.
Currently, quality control in food production still relies heavily on human labor, but maintaining consistent production standards remains a challenge. Therefore, startups and the government must work together to encourage producers to adopt AI for improving food production quality. This would help develop Thailand’s Food Tech sector so it can compete globally. The challenge for startups lies in creating technology that is easy to use, not overly complex, and reasonably priced, making it a sustainable investment for producers.
In the past, Thailand’s Food Tech sector has benefited from having talented researchers, industries open to startup collaboration, a clear target market, and strong linkages between researchers – startups – industry – investors – farmers. There’s also a trend toward expanding these connections to cover the entire food chain. As a startup founder, Wandee expressed her desire to develop AI that is 100% Thai-owned, supported by both the public and private sectors to expand into international markets, meet investors, and gain global recognition for Thai technology.
Chanapol Tuntakosol, CEO & Co-Founder of Muu, also spoke about Thailand’s opportunities and challenges. He pointed out that Thailand has an advantage in startup development compared to other countries due to relatively low production and labor costs. Government funding support for startups has improved over the years, with larger budgets now available. However, he suggested that the government should create a Fast Track approval process for Novel Food with clear timelines to avoid losing competitiveness against countries like Singapore or Hong Kong.
For Food Tech startups, the main challenge is creating products that meet consumer expectations for Future Food—foods and beverages that retain familiar flavors but are healthier and more environmentally friendly, at a fair and reasonable price. Achieving this could attract consumers to adopt these products more willingly in the future. He also proposed positioning Thailand as a global food innovation sandbox, while accelerating domestic market policies to encourage consumers to “embrace the new,” similar to international markets where acceptance of Thai Future Food is steadily increasing.
Thailand has already begun driving its growth through innovation in a systematic way.
But if we want to go further, we must be “creators” – not just “producers.”
Because innovation is not an option — it is the key to unlocking Thailand’s future.