Thai Union Group Public Company Limited (TU) has launched a Pilot Plant with deputy Prime Minster Dr Somkid Jatursripitak.
It is designed to innovate sustainable and value-added products located within the Global Innovation Incubator (Gii).
Thiraphong Chansiri, president and CEO of TU, said: “We believe that innovation will contribute to our business growth and help us achieve our US€8bn target by 2020.”
“Innovation will further our competitiveness, differentiation and capacity in the world food industry. To support and drive forward progress at the Gii, we have invested approximately US$20m to expand the work space to twice its initial size.”
Both the seafood Pilot Plant and the Gii extension are the result of the TU’s investment boost in a bid to help realise the Thai government’s vision for the country to become a hub for food research and innovation.
Three joint post graduate programmes pertaining to the research and development programme at the Gii were signed with Mahidol University, Kasetart University and King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonbury.
“Mahidol University is renowned for the advancement of research and development in science and technology, including collaboration for innovation with the private sector,” said Dr Sittiwat Lertsiri, dean of biotechnology department, Mahidol University.
He added: “R&D and innovation are essential to the quality of life, food security, job creation, economy, society and competitiveness of the country.”
The programme will work on the development of new, more environmentally-conscious processing technologies to produce innovations with an industry-leading focus on sustainability and responsibility which is also aimed to satisfy customer and consumer demands worldwide.
