Trends in Thailand’s Ready-To-Eat Food industry ( forecast period 2023 to 2028 )

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  • The market value of the Ready-to-eat food industry will continue to grow. The domestic market, which is the main market, tends to grow in line with instant noodles that are likely to continue to expand.
  • The Chilled and Frozen Ready-to-(h)eat food market tends to grow well in line with the expansion of modern retail stores, which are the main distribution channels.

The revenue generated within the Ready-to-Eat Meals sector reaches a total of $3.9 billion in 2023. Projections indicate an anticipated annual growth rate of 4.65% (Compound Annual Growth Rate) from 2023 to 2028.

Basic information:

Ready-to-eat Food is food that has been processed successfully by using food preservation methods to extend shelf life and processing food products into a form that is ready to eat conveniently divided into 2 types according to the nature of production and storage.

1) Dried and Shelf Stable Ready-to-eat Food accounted for 58.2% of the value of ready-to-eat food in the country.

2) Chilled and Frozen Ready-to-eat Food, accounting for 41.8% of the value of ready-to-eat food in the country.

The ready-to-eat food industry in Thailand has 249 factories registered with the Department of Business Development (latest data as of 2020). Most of them are medium-small factories (SMEs), divided into:

100: dry and rack ready-to-eat food factories (40%)
149: Chilled-frozen ready-to-eat food factories (60%)

 

The ready-to-eat food industry mainly depends on the domestic market. (average proportion 80-85% of ready-to-eat food production during 2016-2021)

In 2021, ready-to-eat food has a domestic market value of approximately 44 billion baht (divided into dry and shelf ready-to-eat food, 26 billion baht, and chilled-frozen ready-to-eat food, worth 18 billion baht). Exports account for 15-20%, worth US$ 354.1 million (11 billion baht) (2021 data), with the main market in Thailand having the potential to export instant noodles. And chilled-frozen ready-to-eat food, namely, the ASEAN market accounted for 36.2% of the total export value of ready-to-eat food, followed by the United States (13.8%) and the Netherlands (8.4%) respectively.

Competitive Landscape:

Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) and S&P Syndicate, two Thai enterprises, secured the leading positions in the industry back in 2015. Thai Beverage (ThaiBev) and Singha Corporation Co., both originating as breweries, have also successfully transitioned into prominent contenders within the ready-to-eat sector.

 

Instant Noodle Industry:

The market is worth about 2.0 million baht (2021 data). The competition in the country is quite intense among the 3 major instant noodle manufacturers with a combined market share of 86.7% of the instant noodle market value in Thailand.

Consisting of:

– Thai President Foods Plc. under the brand ‘Mama’ (market share 47.6%).

– Thai Food Product Factory Co., Ltd. under the brand ‘Wai Wai’ (23.7%)

– Wan Thai Food Industry Co., Ltd. ‘Yum Yum’ brand (15.4%)