The Food Value Chain Training Course was organised by HRD Project Phase 4 in collaboration with the Department of Agro-Industrial Technology of Kasetsart University and Japan Food Journal and was held on 7-9 & 14-16 July 2025.
The Programme was an intensive course to develop human resources in agriculture and food-related areas. It specifically focused on the Food Value Chain, considering ASEAN priorities such as decarbonization and digitalisation. Approximately 33 students participated, with 18 participants being students from the Department of Agro-Industrial Technology of Kasetsart University.
A total of 10 relevant experts from Japanese Public-Private Companies were invited and shared their expertise based on their broad knowledge and experience on the topic of the Food Value Chain. Their presentations covered a wide range of key topics, including, but not limited to: (1) Introduction of Food Value Chain and Methods for improving value chain of agricultural and food products, (2) Outline for the Organic Japanese Agricultural Standards (JAS), (3) Sustainable Agriculture Management, (4) Agricultural cooperative in related to supporting farmers and exploring agribusiness, (5) Environment initiatives in food service industry, including decarbonisation and reduction of chemical usage, and reduction on food loss and waste, (6) Intellectual Property and Geographical Indication.
Furthermore, the lectures were enriched with workshops on topics such as: 1) Agriculture Cooperative’s community approach and ideas for value-added initiatives for farmers, 2) Ideas on production and sales strategy on local fruits, and 3) Ideas on eliminating food loss and food waste in food business. Especially Workshop 2 and 3, the topics complement each other, focusing on creating new and sustainable value in agribusiness with regard to the environment.
Another activity that participants could experience was field visits to the Big C Distribution Center Thunya buri and Café Amazon OASYS Lifestyle Business Center. These activities aimed to build a comprehensive understanding of participants on the given topic related to the Food Value Chain, and to learn more outside the classes and see how the actual operations were done in the actual facilities.
In general, participants have learned a lot and gained many new perspectives on the developments of the food value chain through this course. All the topics opened the students’ views of how various companies and organisations can add value along the food value chain from upstream to downstream.
