Thailand-based company Thai Union, one of the world’s largest seafood companies, announced its goal to become a leader for plant-based seafood, exploring emerging areas through collaboration and investments in start-ups.
The company’s strategy will center around offering contracted services for alternative seafood production. It has already received orders from European customers for alternative tuna and will soon begin shipping private-label products to the United States.
In the near future, Thai Union aims to sell alternative shrimp, and it is working on creating a tuna substitute made from a mixture of soy and wheat. In July 2021, it started a collaboration with Thai company V Foods to co-develop new plant-based products and widen its domestic and international markets. In the same year, Thai Union invested in BlueNalu, an American cellular aquaculture start-up specializing in cell-cultured seafood.
In parallel, the Thai company aims to improve farmed shrimp traceability. Thai Union began piloting the use of satellite imaging for shrimp farming operations in collaboration with Sea Warden, an American satellite data analytics startup, and Wholechain, a supply chain traceability company also based in the United States.
(Sources: The Fish Site; SeafoodSource)
