Thaifex Anuga Asia 2025: Roundup Part 1

Last week, Ugo and I were in Bangkok, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells at Thaifex Anuga Asia 2025. If you haven’t seen our live coverage of some very cool products, hop on over to LinkedIn. Or just check out the full album – there’s nearly 2,000 photos in there, something for everyone.

Over this week and the next, I’m going to do a run-down of all the different ingredient, product, and consumer trends on display, featuring the F&B space in Southeast Asia.

But more on these a little later on.  

How challenger brands can succeed in APAC

First and foremost, I had the privilege of attending a fantastic presentation from our very own Rob Hall, founder and CEO of Growth Asia. The Thaifex Anuga Asia organizers were kind enough to give us a copy of the recording early so now you can watch it too! 

Rob talked about how many challenger F&B brands enter the region with ambition, but not enough of a game plan. He laid out a no-nonsense guide to doing it right, backed by decades of helping brands expand across the region.

His key message? Winning in Asia means thinking big from day one. That starts with designing your route to scale early, long before you start tweaking flavors or packaging for a local launch. You need to know which markets come next, how the business will grow, and what role your brand will play in the broader category. Without that, your local success may stall before it really starts.

Rob also challenged the idea that niche positioning is the safest entry point. In fact, he argues that many brands aim too narrowly, focusing on a small, premium audience that’s easy to reach but hard to scale. The bigger opportunity lies in building relevance for the mass market, even if that takes more strategic legwork upfront.

Another important takeaway? Shelf presence alone won’t build demand. Brands that win create awareness before they hit the aisle. That means getting loud, showing up in culture, and being top of mind, not just top of shelf. And while paid performance has its place, brands also need to invest in long-term demand creation, not just short-term sales.

If your brand is gearing up for Asia, or struggling to grow beyond your first market, Rob’s talk is well worth a watch. It’s packed with practical frameworks and hard-earned advice to help you shift from playing it safe to playing for scale.

Watch the full presentation here:

Now, on to the products and trends! 

I’ve been going to these trade shows for a while now, and one of the things that really struck me here was the government backing for Thai brands and innovation. There were separate sections dedicated to specific themes and specific regions across the country, all coming together in a really cohesive manner. I was very impressed! 

I was also impressed by how much of the innovation was in terms of value-added agrifoods. I usually tend to do little more than glance at what are essentially commodities, but here, that would have been a massive oversight. Brand after brand had very cool products, highlighting the scope for taking basic staples and reimagining them for consumers who are hyperfocused on wellness and convenience. All while promoting the local agrieconomy and planning for the future. 

There might be some grumbling about these products being ultraprocessed and whatnot, but it’s important that we get our heads out of our backsides and face reality. We need to contend with feeding over 9 billion humans in another couple of decades (not to mention 2 billion pet cats and dogs, according to one of the talks I listened to). That’s going to be quite tough If we’re not thinking about extending the shelf life of even our fresh foods.

Put it in the context of this: rIght now, thanks to the USAID cuts, food stocks that could have fed 3.5 million people FOR A MONTH are rotting in US government warehouses around the world. 

So, the future-themed parts of the event were just very timely. And it wasn't that the ideas were totally out there. They weren't about high falutin' lab-grown or cultivated meats or chocolate. These products were based on local ingredients that consumers are familiar with.

In this week's coverage, I thought it might be interesting to look at how Thailand's strategy could be a useful framework for other countries where agriculture is a major source of trade revenue. Some of the innovations with rice, coconut, and fruit just took my breath away and I truly believe that they can go a long way in the sustainability and price volatility conversations we've been grappling with recently.

Thailand’s focus on future foods

To start off, Thailand seems to be really big right on future foods. There was a whole separate display on future foods and their potential, with special focus on alternative protein sources. But the same products were also placed in contexts that were more mundane, more accessible by the average consumer. 

“Future food” was defined as safe and health-beneficial foods that align with the lifestyle of modern global citizens. These specifically refer to foods produced through innovative technologies that support sustainability and the environment. They were broken into 4 distinct categories.

1. Functional food and functional ingredients: F&B products and related compounds enhanced with beneficial nutrients or with reduced levels of harmful substances, designed to improve health outcomes and enhance quality of life.

2. Medical and personalized food: Specialized products developed under medical supervision, tailored to meet nutritional needs of people with certain medical conditions. 

3. Organic food and whole food: Organic food is agri produce grown and processed through natural methods, free from chemical contamination throughout the process.  

4. Alternative protein: Foods that contain higher protein performance content compared to conventional diets, with the raw materials usually from a non-animal source.

The global future food market is expected to be worth US$310 billion by 2025, up 51% compared to 2021. And in 2024, Thailand’s future food exports were said to be worth UD$4.6 billion, growing at nearly 11% (what time period was not very clear, however). Here’s a breakdown of the exports across the four categories:

The Future Foods display covered 4 main types of alt proteins and how they can become a part of the food experience through new product launches. These were broken down into 4 main sources: plant-based, insect-based, microbial-based, and algae-based.

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Wolffia protein

One new source of plant protein that kept popping up was wolffia globosa, a tiny free-floating aquatic plant that grows very quickly and can form floating mats on water. Wolffia is said to be the smallest flowering plant in the world and also has over 20% protein by dry weight as well as a range of other important nutrients. The Thai government is actively promoting wolffia as a superfood and a new economic crop. 

This was evident at Thaifex, with a number of companies showcasing wolffia as either the main ingredient or one of the main ingredients of their products.

Startup Advanced Greenfarm’s Flo is a major player in the large-scale production of wolffia and works with its own specialized strain. Its product range includes the fresh product, powder, and plant protein powder. 

Flo’s wolffia is also being used by other companies in their products to enhance the nutritional profile.

There are also brands incorporating unbranded wolffia in their products, like Peliv’s Tofu Veggie Protein Chips made from fresh tofu, green vegetables (including wolffia powder), and Thai herbs. This range of products is said to contain 35-40% protein.

Wolffia is even being treated like all other protein sources to get highly purified extracts of the protein through hydrolyzation, like Holista is doing.

Adding value to staples

When we talk about F&B trends, we don’t often think of agri-commodities. Thanks to government support, Thai companies are able to invest in R&D and create value-added products that are far more suited for the convenience-driven lifestyles of today.

Coconut

Coconuts are an important part of much of south and southeast Asian cuisine, but have been subjected to the same inflationary pressures as many other crops. It’s also an ingredient that I didn’t think had much scope for innovation - the most innovative thing I’ve seen with coconut is ready-to-use coconut milk. But boy did I stand corrected!

Coconut spreads that might give Nutella a run for its money, coconut powder infused coffee for an instant keto boost, and even coconut flour added to rice for an additional flavor and fiber boost – these were just a few of the products from Coconuta.

This has to be one of the most mind-boggling things I’ve seen in a while. These noodles are made from only coconut water – not the meat, just the water. The pack can be drained and the contents can be added to whatever you want, just like glass noodles. The product even maintains its structural integrity for the most part. 

IF&B’s COCOFiBER is a natural dietary fiber derived from coconut meat after fat extraction, as a byproduct of coconut milk processing. This product can add fiber to a range of foods, from snacks to coatings of fried foods.

And of course, there were a number of coconut vinegars, MCT oils, and alcohol products, not to mention coconut water and coconut snacks.

But did you think you might see a coconut protein – very niche, but very real!

Rice

Thailand is a major rice consumer with many heritage varieties that have either received their geographical indication tag or are in the process of it. There also appears to be a lot of work going on to preserve the rarer rice varieties and also to make them more approachable for consumers.

Take BioBlack, a startup that works with preserving an indigenous variety of black rice grown only in a few regions in Thailand. Black rice can be hard to cook and consume, and is not as popular as white rice. BioBlack takes advantage of the harder grain and uses puffed black rice to make a granola, which doesn’t become soggy in milk even after 15 minutes. The company is working on granola clusters to make this product a convenient snack as well.

Another company was even selling a black rice tea, made from the water used to soak the rice before cooking. This water is collected and evaporated so that only a powder remains, which is said to be highly nutritious.

There were also a number of companies offering sweet and savory rice snacks in traditional and contemporary flavors, with a range of interesting ingredients and processing techniques. 

Bananas

Lots of products with unripe and sweet bananas, from snacks to health powders. Of all of them, this product stood out. Ripe, dehydrated bananas that has been half coated in a flavored dip. This process gave the banana an interesting chewy texture and could be seen as a natural energy bar.

Then there’s the crossover product, featuring rice, coconut, and bananas, cooked in a banana leaf, ready to be consumed!

I think it’s practically the law to have a protein element now. And bananas can fulfil this as well. 4care Inno offers a plant-based protein powder that is made from pea, Namwa banana, and brown rice. This combination is said to offer a full amino acid profile and support muscle development. It is also said to be easy to digest, fortified with prebiotics and probiotics.

Konjac

Konjac is a starchy root found in parts of Asia and is also known as devil's tongue or elephant yam. It has a high content of glucomannan, a soluble fiber, which offers konjac several potential health benefits, including aiding weight loss, improving gut health, lowering blood sugar and cholesterol, and promoting regularity.

Konjac has been used to make a whole host of low-cal, high-fiber foods, like alternatives to noodles, rice, and meat. Monkey King Food is a leading player offering a range of konjac-based foods, including these “boiled egg” slices.

The following drink is a blend of young coconut water and konjac, which helps increase satiety. This drink is low in sodium and high in potassium, potentially helping to reduce the risk of high blood pressure and stroke. 

That’s all, folks! See you next week with part 2, where we’ll look at some consumer trends and how brands are responding.

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