National oil and gas conglomerate PTT Plc is preparing to build a factory to process a variety of plant-based foods, with the aim of turning them into popular new products.
The facility, to be located in Rojana Industrial Estate in Ayutthaya, will initially have a production capacity of 3,000 tonnes a year, which will increase to 25,000 tonnes within seven years.
Between 200-500 million baht will be allocated for investment in the first phase.
"We will use soybeans as the main ingredient to produce, for example, pork and meat products," said Buranin Rattanasombat, senior executive vice-president of PTT and chairman of Innobic (Asia), the life science arm of PTT.
"The company sees a business opportunity for plant-based food in domestic and overseas markets as it will be a future food trend."
Innobic plans to sell plant-based products under the "alt" brand and serve as an original equipment manufacturer in this segment under a business-to-business model.
Over the past two years, Innobic has spent 13 billion baht developing new businesses, based on life science technology, with plant-based food being one of them.
PTT is keen to diversify into the latter business as the market value of plant-based food stood at around 9 billion baht last year, with predicted annual growth of 12-15%.
Thailand is also a major food exporter.
"Plant-based food has high growth potential, and we also want to drive this business through merger and acquisition plans," said Mr Buranin.
Auttapol Rerkpiboon, chief executive of PTT Plc, said plant-based products will not only add value to the Thai food industry, but will also help farmers increase their revenue.
He said the company is in talks with UK-based Wicked Kitchen, a startup specialising in the production of plant-based food, over a joint business opportunity in Thailand.
Pete Speranza, chief executive of Wicked Kitchen, said the company plans to launch 17 new products in Thailand in October, to be sold in supermarkets and a food shop under the alt brand.
"We want to produce our plant-based products at Innobic's factory," he said.