Message from CEO

Dear Thai Wah's Friends and Family

Thai Wah is driven by our core purpose to "Create Innovation and Sustainability from Farm to Shelf," as we seek to serve our global customers and consumers with Pride, Integrity, and Consistency. As we close our chapter on 2022, we are eager to share the stories of our journey of being better and doing better every day.

It has been a challenging journey for our company to navigate through the uncertainty of the previous three years, but thanks to the steadfast commitment of my colleagues, our customers, and our partners, Thai Wah has emerged from the pandemic stronger, faster, and better. More importantly, stakeholder excellence in collaboration with partners and customers around the globe — as we think about how to communicate our core vision around Sustainability and Innovation — has become more important than ever before, as we work harder and collectively towards a more sustainable future.

With 15 operations in 5 Asia-Pacific countries and a global reach of over 35 countries, we aspire to be a leading Agri-Food company in the region. Our commitment across all aspects of our value chain — from farm and sourcing, to manufacturing and delivery — has a profound impact on the community and stakeholders we interact with. As we seek to provide our global consumers with the best tapioca, mung bean, rice, and other plant-based ingredients, Thai Wah is committed to creating shared value and bringing the best of Southeast Asia to the rest of the world. As we continue to expand our reach and look to create Traceability, drive Transition, and lead the Transformation of our value chain, we remain focused on our four Pillars of Sustainability — Farmer Development, Green Factory and Community, Family and Well-Being, and Food and Finished Good.

Much of our efforts over the last year — as you will see in this year’s Sustainability Report — has been focused on operationalizing these goals and frameworks into concrete measures of progress, both internally within the Thai Wah community, and externally with our partners as well. The progress has undoubtedly been very encouraging, but there is still much to be done.

In 2022, we continued to push forward and support the building of sustainable farming communities across Thailand and Cambodia. Serving over 30,000 farmers in the region, we continued to build on the best-in-class regional Thai Wah farming solutions to create more agricultural value and improve the overall global supply chain. The portfolio of solutions comprises a team of Agronomists in Thailand and Cambodia, Thai Wah Pioneering Agri Technology Solutions, and an abundance of leading crop and soil experts in the region as we endeavor to tackle climate challenges from a deeply important agricultural perspective. At the factory level, we continued to transform the “Thai Wah Business Systems” across all factories to enable all of our operations to serve customers better and faster. 

As part of the Group’s carbon footprint reduction project, we expanded the baselining of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions to our Pimai, Kalasin, Maesot, and Rayong plants, taking into account Scope 1, 2 and 3. Climate change must be tackled by all parties, and we are firmly devoted to doing our part by becoming Carbon Neutral and cutting Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2030. 

As agricultural crops and foods are one of Southeast Asia’s most important exports, we dedicate our time and effort to better serve our consumers and customers by putting innovation and sustainability at the core of everything we do every day. We have doubled the capability of our R&D regional hub at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, as well as built a global network of Food and Biotech partnerships in the United States, Israel, Japan, Singapore, and India. Through our regional commercial teams in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the rest of the world, we are continuously building a bridge closer to our customers every day. Through our five regional Innovation Application Centers, each year we can roll out more than 20 new plant-based ingredients and food products. At Thai Wah, Sustainability and Innovation go hand in hand as we have seen with the launch of our new bioplastic business, Thai Wah agri-biotech solutions, and Thai Wah Ventures, which are all key future platforms in the important Southeast Asia ecosystem that will foster growth and more sustainable partnerships.

Last year, we doubled down on our Digital and People Transformation efforts across the Thai Wah Group. Initiatives included group-wide efforts to digitally link and optimize supply chain and profitability from farm to shelf or supply to customer, pilot IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things) at factories to track efficiencies and reduce wastage, and building supplier and customer big data and insights. We also continued to listen to our associates. We conducted the Associate Engagement Survey, and we received an engagement score of 95%. We take pride in fostering and supporting a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our top leaders are 55% female, and the overall group associate ratio is 1 to 1.

We are also proud to announce that Thai Wah was selected to be on the list of the “Thailand Sustainability Investment'' (THSI) for the 4th consecutive year by the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and was awarded the “Sustainability Disclosure Recognition'' by Thaipat. Thai Wah also received the “Sustainability Excellence: Rising Star” Award by SET and the “Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2022” Award by HR ASIA for the first time in 2022. This year, Thai Wah was also a recipient of the inaugural “Steward leadership Asia 25” Award this year, which was given to the Asian companies that showcased strategies that had greater purposes beyond profit making to tackle the existential challenges that our society is facing today. We deeply thank our community for the recognition. This serves as a tried-and-true testament of our dedication to the Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) principles. All this is done to transform our company into one that is sustainable, consistently generating returns and encouraging all related companies to likewise operate in an awareness of the ESG principles and responsibly towards all stakeholders.

Last year, as we celebrated 75 years of Thai Wah’s past, present, and future, we celebrated a milestone in our Company’s history. As we move forward on the road to being a more sustainable, innovative, and purposeful company. I am proud and committed to working together with our colleagues, our customers, and our partners to move ahead swiftly, creatively, and decisively, and forge a more equitable and sustainable future for generations to come.