New online channel for Thailand's food wholesalers to access region

SMALL businesses in Thailand's food manufacturing and wholesale trade industries have been encouraged to buy and sell across regional borders, with the help of a new online channel.

Thaitrade.com, an e-commerce portal run by the country's Department of International Trade Promotion, teamed up with a Singapore-based firm to raise the profile of selected Thai brands.

The partnership with business-to-business wholesale food platform OctoRocket, which is partly owned by Business Times publisher Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), aims to help Thai food manufacturers export their wares.

Food suppliers in Thailand can also tap the new channel to connect with regional counterparts and source products from the rest of South-east Asia for Thai consumers.

The Director-General of the International Trade Promotion Department, Mr. Somdet Susomboon, said the partnership will help encourage Thai food manufacturers to take the first step in exporting their products via first establishing an online presence, while Thai suppliers will be able to source a wide variety of South-east Asian products to suit the increasingly international palate of Thai consumers.

Julian Tan, chairman of OctoRocket and chief of digital business at SPH, said that the partnership "will help our retail buyers source for new flavours in their take-away menu or groceries offering, whilst facilitating Thai retail buyers to similarly benefit from easier access to a wider variety of South-east Asian products".

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The goods that have been curated by Thaitrade, which include rice, sauces and snacks, can be found at www.octorocket.asia/thaitrade.