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https://dataservices.mof.go.th/menu27?id=6
This is data from the gov. Main imports are machinery and oil. Then material for production to be reexport.
If you want an idea for consumer goods, you should look around lazada, shopee, and Central.
Medical equipment, large machines like X-rays and respiratory equipment. Refurbished / used ones that can no longer be used in the USA, or maybe they’re repairing them over there. I don’t know the details but my brother is a low level worker at a warehouse that ships these machines to Thailand, dozens a week.
I knew someone dealing with medical equipment’s supply from Australia to Thailand. He does a few shipments a month (based on his orders/AMC contracts) and usually the profit margins are decent.
Wine tax is insane here. So as beer and all other alcoholic drinks. In the states i could get a bottom shelf wine for 3 bucks. That same bottle cost 15 bucks here (barefoot)
Yes, but the point is they've just slashed it considerably. However, all the importers and manufacturers have ignored the tax cuts and taken it as an opportunity to trouser the difference.
You very obviously have no idea what it takes to produce wine on even a small commercial level.
So try suggesting things that you know something about maybe?
Why don't you want to try to export something? Personally, it looks more feasible to establish a production line here than in western countries.
Moreover, you can try to play on a premium segment. Like healthcare products for example: supplements, shampoo and etc. The main issue will be to find a local factory to produce these stuff properly but I believe it's doable.
I'm also like you looking for opportunities in Thailand or Cambodia.
FYI exporting comes with its own pains - dealing with export laws, shipping, finding foreign distributors/importers, finding Thai factories in compliance with foreign regulations and can do what you want them to do economically, and, hardest, marketing in your target market while you live here. Generally helps to be where your customers are.
Not saying it’s a bad idea, just that it is very hard, especially if doing so alone.
I think this is a hard question, I’m not an expert so only observations, but Thailand imports what the want to import, and by that I mean it’s largely focused on premium stuff that is impossible to make in Thailand. Or it’s made locally but obviously still licensed or owned by the big brands (Cars, motorbikes etc)
People have tried things like beef, wine etc But in generally it’s still average at best, the climate just doesn’t support a lot of that stuff. And then normal food wise, Thailand seems to be able to produce more than it actually needs. Huge rice exporter, pineapples, tuna etc.
Also much of the stuff imported these days is ridiculously cheap, Shein, Lazada etc - ultra cheap Chinese manufactured stuff which you have no chance of competing against.
Sextoy. When it becomes legal, the first person to establish a brand will be filthy rich. Right now, the import volume from Aliexpress must be huge, as it is better than getting them from black market.
Sextoy is legally defined as a sexually explicit object. Possession is an offense punishable by up to three years in prison, a 60,000 baht fine, or both.
But you don't have to be concerned if it's for personal use; no one in their right mind would enforce this law.
I can only advise caution when making a statement like this. When a foreigner comes under the scrutiny of the authorities here in Thailand, his life is usually examined in detail. At the end, the bill for all of his crimes is presented.
99% of the foreigners living here have no difficulty avoiding doing things like David. It's really not that hard. Personally, whenever I feel like kicking a doctor in the back I pause and say to myself "Don't do what David would do." Ditto for when I feel the urge to have sex with horses or beat up a grandma at a shopping mall.
some ideas on the top of my head, success not guaranteed:
Chili varieties, Thai’s love chili but don’t really seem to have a lot of different kinds, maybe imported seeds for habanero, poblano and other interesting varieties could be grown and sold at a premium.
High quality cheese, most nice cheeses are imported but production methods should in theory be able to be copied and made just as good but cheaper here.
2,4-dithiapentane (truffle flavor), anything truffle is always expensive, artificial truffle flavoring might be able to be produced and sold with a great profit margin.
Chocolate, I believe you can get Thai cocoa but haven’t seen much great local chocolate, maybe you can make something cheaper locally like the nama chocolate/royce sold at >500thb for a small box.
Beef and Milk in Thailand have different fat ratio to the warm region. It’s really low fat due to the weather and breeds make low quantity and quality cheese and butter that’s why we import. I always love dessert and chocolate from Japan and German cus the quality much more better. Thai crappy chocolate add palm oil and milk taste more watery.
Mine are all dairy-related since they have fat tariffs
1) Cheeses. I think milk fat content on the cows here isn’t great but you could still probably start at the sharp-flavored end like aged cheddar and work your way up. Imports have a big tariff. I’m sure there is a cheese scene in the country but either it’s poorly marketed or poorly distributed because I’ve never seen it in grocery stores.
2) Heavy Cream. Only seen domestic milks (and only 1-2 quality milks - Dairy Home/Chokchai) and never domestic heavy cream. Low milk fat content probably influences the economics.
3) High end ice cream. Never seen a good domestic ice cream - eg one that can compete with Haagen-Daz. I don’t think the market is that big because most people don’t care and Thais flock to flashy marketing and innovative flavors…but there has to be a few people who want high quality ice cream and Haagen-Daz pricing is stratospheric.
Yeah incredibly well-marketed and a great flavor “inspiration” from Toscanini’s in Boston. I usually groan when people bring this to my house because it’s super low quality and they hide the base behind big flavors.
Probably a good data point that my thesis that market size of quality ice cream connoisseurs is quite small and only a handful of people care about it. Marketing rules the roost here (and Gus is great at it).
What is the characteristic of a high quality ice cream?
how can you tell them apart from the cheap ones?
I tried haagen-daz before and I think it tasted good but just that. it does not make me feel “this must be made from high quality ingredients”
is cold stone or rintaro a good one?
Very little air mixed in, high quality cream, not a ton of ingredients, definitely no ice crystals. Rintaro is gelato and I think they use honey instead of sugar - I can’t stand it but unfair to compare it to ice cream. Cold stone is relatively good for here but still don’t like it, they use (or used to use) corn syrup in the sweet cream base which is bad and an indicator they’re cutting corners elsewhere with cheap ingredients.
Usually the best way is to use the most unadulterated flavor - eg sweet cream or vanilla - as a blind taste test and you can usually spot the differences.
Again though, ice cream connoisseurs are few and far between and I think most of the population really doesn’t care as long as it’s cold and sweet and has cool looking flavors, and nothing wrong with that. We’re in the tropics with a very small domestic milk industry so wouldn’t expect high quality ice cream anyways.
Bro knows his ice cream. I was heavily focused on starting an ice cream shop in Arizona before I moved to Thailand and did a lot of learning on this. Cheap ice creams are low quality but if you want the good, creamy, stuff, it’s a lot more expensive.
Tillamook is my fav commercially produced ice cream in USA.
Right on. It’s a tough business. Tillamook is a solid choice; I’m still partial to Haagen-Daz just because the milk fat content is so high, it’s a miracle they haven’t cut corners (and Unilever of all places) and seem to instead just decrease carton size/increase prices.
Jeni’s used to be my favorite but she sold a controlling stake to private equity circa 2018-ish and the quality tanked after that, it’s been really sad to watch.
VC firms are notorious for being sharks and having myopic vision. Coincidentally, as I was writing my last comment, I was listening to the Halo Top podcast episode of How I Built This and dude had VCs approach him but same deal. Just want to do awful things to lower costs and increase profit and they wanted to start targeting the senile market - like Ensure Nutrition drinks.
I do ecomm now, but have been thinking about business in Thailand. I’d like to do CPGs in USA and export phulae pineapples and pack them 4 to a pack with tajin or chili powder + salt. Or I’d like to try and extrapolate the successes of USA and do something like Kona Ice trucks in touristy spots like Phuket, Samui, etc. I think that could smash it out here especially because I do not believe the heat gets better in the future.
Agree - overpriced and its not even good tbh. Tons of sugar but the flavours are boring as hell.
Good ice cream is called gelato and never had one in Thailand
Vivin grocery is selling Thailand made cheeses. Good quality stuff at decent-ish prices. Definitely not for the average Thai person, but for expats and middle class they would see it was a interesting local option
The reason there are no decent dairy products in Thailand except for imports is because believe it or not there's no milk produced in Thailand. All the local milk you buy is reconstructed milk powder with an exception of 1-2 brands that are already priced more than imported milk and barely enough to supply to a few shelves in high end supermarkets (Dairy Home grass fed).
So if you want to make cheese without importing you need milking cows, tens of thousands of it. These fatty cows can't survive in Thailand's hot climate so you need huge barns that are air conditioned. Then you need a milking and pasteurization factory. Then you need a cheese making factory.
Maybe possible if you're willing to invest 9 figures.
But even then you probably still wouldn't be able to compete with the imported product's prices and quality
I knew there was a lot imported and maybe I’m missing something here but afaik there is still dairy cows and milk produced In Thailand.
Edit: digging around a bit and I guess most of it goes to schools.
http://www.sustainability.chula.ac.th/report/2564/
I agree with most of this, Dairyhome makes decent yogurt which is also competitively priced - I do wonder if someone could get bulk pricing from them and make a run at cheese making. Changed my mind and you’d probably have to start at the higher priced soft cheeses, like brie, to have any shot at a success, and then work your way down from that. As you pointed out, the options are pretty limited since the milk fat levels and adequate supply is so small.
Plus if I were Dairyhome and someone had success I’d just copy them and cut off their supply.
What absolute nonsense. Of course they produce milk in Thailand. There are thousands of dairy farms in the kingdom. Every single fresh milk product you see in the supermarkets is locally produced. The country exports nearly a third of a million tons of milk annually.
Edible cheddar cheese. There is surprisingly a growing artisan cheese scene in Thailand but the ones I've seen are more into French and Italian cheese vs cheddar.
I came back to this because I’m so curious. Can you share anything else about his business? Not asking for details about how much he makes or even his website. I’m just super curious about this because it sounds like a logistics company more than anything else, which I find really interesting.
How does he go about selling the machines once they’re in Thailand? I wonder who he works with to receive the shipments and where he stores them.
If you want to look at imports, check out tour buses. There’s always a strong demand for them, particularly comfortable ones with AC.
Manufacturing? Check out solar panels. They’ve been falling I. Price over the last decade and could show strong demand for people and business to lower electricity cost.
You could also check out water towers. They are popular in Vietnam and the Philippines. Not sure about Thailand.
When I visited, I didn’t find very many healthy bran-type muffins. Only a few sugary ones.
But from what I was told, Thais keep regular not with fibre from wheat but from fruits.
There's been a big problem with real American pepperoni for pizza. Pizza mania has had to ration their pepperoni because of it.
Also, all-beef hotdogs are basically non existent here. Literally the only place in all of Thailand that has them is Shake Shack. So, not only are they not made domestically, they aren't even imported. Check out Villa Market's hot dog selection, not a Nathan's or Hebrew National in sight. It's really weird because I know there's demand.
Exactly. I literally had not had one since I left NYC five years ago. I'd searched everywhere for them. Finally, when shake shack opened, I ordered two highly overpriced hot dogs literally ~4 nights a week for at least a month.
I said it before in another thread, but what is severely lacking is some construction/renovation company that follows Western building codes and practices. Quality of Thai construction/renovation work is atrocious.
High quality electrician service business would probably make a killing. I often see people looking for someone to do work that doesn't get them electrocuted. Start in Phuket.
I knew someone who was making money as a handyman in Phuket.
I’m a qualified spark so I could possibly do similar but honestly I’d be scared to work illegally. It’s my second home here. I want to keep it that way.
Yer would be great for farangs but that’s the exact reason it’s illegal because the Thai government know that farangs would come and dominate that market which would not be great for native Thai people.
Thai government really is fascinating. They will do absolutely everything to keep out foreigners. Even at the severe expense of the country in so many forms.
Huh. I wonder if I should get certified as an electrician in the US before moving to Thailand in a couple of years. I’m a dual citizen, so maybe I could start a school to train up locals properly or something. Then I could hire farang teachers 🤷🏻♂️
Interesting. Honestly I haven’t got a clue.
I’m guessing there’s probably a regulatory body here and you’d have to be qualified here to join that. But being qualified in the US would make that process easier.
Also I will say just taking the exams probably isn’t enough. You need to have experience in the workplace too. At least in the UK the qualification only really touched on individual practical aspects.
Agricultural labour (and labour in a lot of other sectors). A lot could be automated or otherwise replaced by machines. And most of the machines are imported and could be locally produced.
Margin would be so small though. It’s already very expensive in the west, would only appeal to foreigners and the price would be ridiculous by the time it’s imported.
Not certain but I suspect that’s the issue with 90% of the items on this thread - it’s all stuff farangs want and have no idea if there is a Thai consumer market for them.
That’s a hard one since Thailand has a lot of factories and is a self sustainable country. They do import a lot of crude oil and petroleum and car parts. There’s a large Thai subculture that loves cars and anything car related.
I’ve been in the import business in Thailand for 20 years. It’s a challenging industry unless you have a customer base. Importing goods into Thailand is a move field of tariffs & taxes.
I'll give you one that is a specialty food product but could be low overhead. A true Philadelphia soft pretzel. These Auntie Anne soft pretzels that you can find in malls are complete garbage. I don't have any recipes or connections but given the low price I think it's a product that would become very popular. Philly has chains called Philadelphia pretzel factories that do very well.
Bottled sparkling water / soda water with taste.
Thailand has only the small glass bottles that Thais only use as mixer with alcohol. It's embarassing to buy them because everyone thinks i'm an alcoholic while i actually just want sparkling water / soda without sugar in it. (I mix it with lime and frozen berries to make delicious sugar free drinks)
In sweden where i'm from there's 1.5 L bottles of sparkling water with various tastes sold for direct consumption. Main brands in sweden called "Loka" and "Ramlösa".
Mint chocolate like "after eight".
White toblerone.
Good kebab (think Stockholm Sweden or Berlin Germany).
A domestic flavored sparkling water just came out called Zuza, it’s really good, like Spindrift in the US. So far they have lime and also pomegranate. Think it’s at Tops and Villa now (and Lazada). Not sure if there’s a market for it but am rooting for them.
I searched Lazada for zuza and found them. Small cans, pretty expensive.
I will keep buying the 24 pack of the Leo soda from makro and pour a bottle into a glass with some frozen berries and a squeeze of lime juice:)
I agree with other commenters that locally raised GOOD beef would be a boon here. Or cheeses, they lack any decent cheese in Thailand outside of Tops market. Body supplies like shower gels and shaving supplies are lacking too. This is a tough question but these are the things I've noticed...
I usually can see them selling local home grown beef meat in thai markets . I know most people avoid them for obvious reasons, but you can definetly get them. At least in the south were many muslims live
Decent sausages ffs. And i mean like the simple irish sausages. Lots of fancy pants german sausages and frozen cancerous english sausages. The gourmet type company they got for it is avg.
I would do anything that you have a level of expertise in, and you can pretty much make money - and find a market that has nothing to do with westerners. The market for westerners is small in comparison to the domestic market.
The first thing that people think is food, there are a lot of experienced food importers in Thailand already. How many western run baked bean importers come and go on Lazada every year.
ETs: I misread - I still stand by what I say in the first sentence. Thinking back 30 years, I wish I had become a baker or butcher. I think if you have a level of competency you could make a decent living here butchering animals or baking bread (I know the latter is possible) you can only learn so much from YouTube.
This isn't about import, it's about manufacturing +.
1. Thai people have a lot of fish, but generally they spoil it while getting it salted or sundried. If you do it the right way, there's a small market inside and big outside (for exports): preserved, canned etc.
2. Local spirits are pretty cost-effective, but lack premium. I guess, the only local brand that stands out is Chalong Bay (google it), while cane, rice, sugar, natural flavors etc. is pretty cheap. A possibility to launch a good brand of liquor or liqueur and go international. Size of markets as above.
3. Attractions and infrastructure: theme parks, marinas, cruise piers, boats rentals etc.
"ประเทศไทยนำเข้าปุ๋ยเคมี"
Thailand imports chemical fertilizers Because it is an agricultural country and cannot produce chemical fertilizer itself because the chemical fertilizer production process requires a large amount of petroleum. and oil refinery
Go to a bunch of shopping malls, see what products are primarily import, in demand and produce it locally.
Though, You don’t have to have a novel idea in order to be successful. You can totally take a very common, local product and make it better or any popular import and see if you can produce it locally.
For example, in Laos shampoo and shower cream is rather “expensive” and mostly import. How you gonna make a fortune? Produce shampoo locally in a professional environment and sell it at a price that matches the local economy.
I’ll bet you $100.000 that people will definitely prefer liquid soup/shampoo over soap bars if they can get it at a reasonable price. Even some of the imported liquid soaps here sell for like $3. Meaning, if you can replicate the same quality locally and sell it below the cheapest import, you’ll make hell lot of money.
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It’s not about what would sell, it’s about what connections in distribution do you have to leverage? Without a personal relationship developed in retail you will be snuffed out by the bigger fish eventually.
I've had this one idea and I'm still trying to figure out how to make it work. It's not imports but maybe you can run with it? Instead of building your own small business, why not buy other businesses that are already profitable and stable?
An example I've been given from the states is to buy a laundromat, hire staff to run it, then add in other businesses to that location that they also manage such as soap dispensers, snack machines, pickup and delivery washing and folding service, etc. Then repeat in multiple locations. This is just an example. Could be carwash service or housekeeping agency or dog walking agency, etc.
I'm mostly brainstorming here but I feel like there might be a lot of opportunity along this line.
Who would sell a profitable business? Elders who are ready to retire but whose kids have left to work in other countries or for whatever other reason they have no one to take over OR the business owner who got lucky and is moving away to marry their lover in another country but doesn't want to just close the business they've been nurturing like a baby for years.
Also can be done in the digital market by buying digital businesses.
Also can be managed from pretty much anywhere with little overhead in the parent business so minimal admin staff, everyone can work remote, no formal office space needed to rent, etc.
I think importing would be very very difficult for all the reasons mentioned above. Exporting can be very very good, though. I've known or known of several people with clothing businesses because textiles and labor can be very inexpensive here. As an example
That's good to know.
It's still as rare as rocking horse shit.
The only rolling tobbaco I found in Pattaya was UK import being sold by Brits for double the price.
This is going to sound nuts, as the market isn't there yet for it, but Thailand doesn't have any good Mexican food. More specifically, it sorely lacks in corn tortillas. Last trip I was there, I did see some import brand flour tortillas in a super market, but no corn.
That's something that would be extremely cheap to manufacture in-country. Just need corn, salt, water, and depending on style, lard. The problem is audience. Thai's don't seem to like Mexican food all that much, so there isn't a large native audience for it. However, Thailand is tracking to hit 40 million tourists/year in the near future, many of whom would love a taco.
So the approach is two fold. Start small scale tortilla production and open up taco stands in high tourist neighborhoods. Start real simple. Chicken or beef. Chopped onions and cilantro. Optional pico de gallo and hot sauce as the only available condiments. Sell them for like 30 baht each, or whatever just covers cost. The food stand isn't the end goal. The goal is to get other restaurants to start offering tacos, thus requiring tortillas. If they see farang lining up at your stand, others will copy. Pitch them to hotels too. Huevos rancheros takes almost no training to make for a hotel cook, yet yields an entirely new spin on a breakfast dish.
Alright, so then cooking ingredients maybe would do well? If I'd be able to grow chilli as someone suggested or gourmet mushrooms or other products and then sell them to restaurants maybe or have a shop?
Thailand could really use a few nuclear power plants. Most Thai electricity is made from fuel oil or coal. These dirty sources are to be used for Thailand's EV future.
Tourist
I'm not sure if we can commercially produce humans
not with that attitude (sarcasm)
Matrix?
Tourism is technically an export industry
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That is an export
Australian beef.
Is this a reference to beefed up Aussie tourists?
I was told those are aussie meat heads 😎
It's been here for some time. You can find it at Tops, Lotus, etc
Correct. That's why they listed it. "What does Thailand import? Australian beef."
Australian sex tourists
https://dataservices.mof.go.th/menu27?id=6 This is data from the gov. Main imports are machinery and oil. Then material for production to be reexport. If you want an idea for consumer goods, you should look around lazada, shopee, and Central.
Thanks for this.
Medical equipment, large machines like X-rays and respiratory equipment. Refurbished / used ones that can no longer be used in the USA, or maybe they’re repairing them over there. I don’t know the details but my brother is a low level worker at a warehouse that ships these machines to Thailand, dozens a week.
I knew someone dealing with medical equipment’s supply from Australia to Thailand. He does a few shipments a month (based on his orders/AMC contracts) and usually the profit margins are decent.
Good info, thanks.
Wine maybe?
Wine prices for American and most European wines are 3 times the price due to tariffs and transportation costs.
I went to a Thai winery in Hua Hin. The prices are ridiculous considering.
Found that the same here at Silverlake wineries near Pattaya.
And yet. Silver lake has recently shut down. Bit of a shame it was a beautiful place.
Wine tax is insane here. So as beer and all other alcoholic drinks. In the states i could get a bottom shelf wine for 3 bucks. That same bottle cost 15 bucks here (barefoot)
Yes, but the point is they've just slashed it considerably. However, all the importers and manufacturers have ignored the tax cuts and taken it as an opportunity to trouser the difference.
Yep. That's a shit move for them but we all know this government isn't for the people
I mean you are right, but that’s a tough business to go into without experience
not possible to go into wine because you need grapes. also alcohol is a very protected business. no chance for him.
As opposed to what? What's the easy business to go into? He was looking for suggestions, I'm sure he's aware that it's not going to be easy.
You very obviously have no idea what it takes to produce wine on even a small commercial level. So try suggesting things that you know something about maybe?
This is true
Why don't you want to try to export something? Personally, it looks more feasible to establish a production line here than in western countries. Moreover, you can try to play on a premium segment. Like healthcare products for example: supplements, shampoo and etc. The main issue will be to find a local factory to produce these stuff properly but I believe it's doable. I'm also like you looking for opportunities in Thailand or Cambodia.
Never looked at it that way, good point tho.
FYI exporting comes with its own pains - dealing with export laws, shipping, finding foreign distributors/importers, finding Thai factories in compliance with foreign regulations and can do what you want them to do economically, and, hardest, marketing in your target market while you live here. Generally helps to be where your customers are. Not saying it’s a bad idea, just that it is very hard, especially if doing so alone.
I think this is a hard question, I’m not an expert so only observations, but Thailand imports what the want to import, and by that I mean it’s largely focused on premium stuff that is impossible to make in Thailand. Or it’s made locally but obviously still licensed or owned by the big brands (Cars, motorbikes etc) People have tried things like beef, wine etc But in generally it’s still average at best, the climate just doesn’t support a lot of that stuff. And then normal food wise, Thailand seems to be able to produce more than it actually needs. Huge rice exporter, pineapples, tuna etc. Also much of the stuff imported these days is ridiculously cheap, Shein, Lazada etc - ultra cheap Chinese manufactured stuff which you have no chance of competing against.
Sextoy. When it becomes legal, the first person to establish a brand will be filthy rich. Right now, the import volume from Aliexpress must be huge, as it is better than getting them from black market.
Weird they are illegal tbh
Hol'up, what do you mean when it becomes legal? Are sex toys currently illegal? I must be missing something here...
Sextoy is illegal, but the law is only enforced when illegal vendors fail to pay taxes to the police.
"Taxes", lol.
So no one living in Thailand can have sex toys according to the law?
Sextoy is legally defined as a sexually explicit object. Possession is an offense punishable by up to three years in prison, a 60,000 baht fine, or both. But you don't have to be concerned if it's for personal use; no one in their right mind would enforce this law.
I can only advise caution when making a statement like this. When a foreigner comes under the scrutiny of the authorities here in Thailand, his life is usually examined in detail. At the end, the bill for all of his crimes is presented.
True, if they're after you, they will find a way, whether via sextoy or 112. Don't set yourself up as a target, like David.
99% of the foreigners living here have no difficulty avoiding doing things like David. It's really not that hard. Personally, whenever I feel like kicking a doctor in the back I pause and say to myself "Don't do what David would do." Ditto for when I feel the urge to have sex with horses or beat up a grandma at a shopping mall.
What happens with lady boys or foreign transgender women who get a sex change operation and are supplied with dialators would that fall under sextoy?
That's correct. So put that dildo down right now.
> When it becomes legal are there any plans?
Not for the moment, but perhaps after legalizing gambling.
some ideas on the top of my head, success not guaranteed: Chili varieties, Thai’s love chili but don’t really seem to have a lot of different kinds, maybe imported seeds for habanero, poblano and other interesting varieties could be grown and sold at a premium. High quality cheese, most nice cheeses are imported but production methods should in theory be able to be copied and made just as good but cheaper here. 2,4-dithiapentane (truffle flavor), anything truffle is always expensive, artificial truffle flavoring might be able to be produced and sold with a great profit margin. Chocolate, I believe you can get Thai cocoa but haven’t seen much great local chocolate, maybe you can make something cheaper locally like the nama chocolate/royce sold at >500thb for a small box.
All of these exist here, and all are niche markets catering in large part to foreigners.
There is a giant Thai Cocoa fair at CTW until the 8th.
There is a chili fair at the Kimpton Maa Lai twice a year. Vivin and the FCCT host Thai cheese tasting events.
Except for truffle related stuff, everything you listed is super niche and more targeted towards foreigners.
Also aro (makro brand) do truffle mayo and other products already. Their truffle mayo is phenomenal BTW and highly recommended on sandwiches haha
Beef and Milk in Thailand have different fat ratio to the warm region. It’s really low fat due to the weather and breeds make low quantity and quality cheese and butter that’s why we import. I always love dessert and chocolate from Japan and German cus the quality much more better. Thai crappy chocolate add palm oil and milk taste more watery.
The thais i know hate foreign chiles, can't explain why they just do
Thanks for this.
Import oil and gas
Isn't that PTT's job?
Mine are all dairy-related since they have fat tariffs 1) Cheeses. I think milk fat content on the cows here isn’t great but you could still probably start at the sharp-flavored end like aged cheddar and work your way up. Imports have a big tariff. I’m sure there is a cheese scene in the country but either it’s poorly marketed or poorly distributed because I’ve never seen it in grocery stores. 2) Heavy Cream. Only seen domestic milks (and only 1-2 quality milks - Dairy Home/Chokchai) and never domestic heavy cream. Low milk fat content probably influences the economics. 3) High end ice cream. Never seen a good domestic ice cream - eg one that can compete with Haagen-Daz. I don’t think the market is that big because most people don’t care and Thais flock to flashy marketing and innovative flavors…but there has to be a few people who want high quality ice cream and Haagen-Daz pricing is stratospheric.
3.Guss Damn Good ice cream is available all over Bangkok already.
Yeah incredibly well-marketed and a great flavor “inspiration” from Toscanini’s in Boston. I usually groan when people bring this to my house because it’s super low quality and they hide the base behind big flavors. Probably a good data point that my thesis that market size of quality ice cream connoisseurs is quite small and only a handful of people care about it. Marketing rules the roost here (and Gus is great at it).
What is the characteristic of a high quality ice cream? how can you tell them apart from the cheap ones? I tried haagen-daz before and I think it tasted good but just that. it does not make me feel “this must be made from high quality ingredients” is cold stone or rintaro a good one?
Very little air mixed in, high quality cream, not a ton of ingredients, definitely no ice crystals. Rintaro is gelato and I think they use honey instead of sugar - I can’t stand it but unfair to compare it to ice cream. Cold stone is relatively good for here but still don’t like it, they use (or used to use) corn syrup in the sweet cream base which is bad and an indicator they’re cutting corners elsewhere with cheap ingredients. Usually the best way is to use the most unadulterated flavor - eg sweet cream or vanilla - as a blind taste test and you can usually spot the differences. Again though, ice cream connoisseurs are few and far between and I think most of the population really doesn’t care as long as it’s cold and sweet and has cool looking flavors, and nothing wrong with that. We’re in the tropics with a very small domestic milk industry so wouldn’t expect high quality ice cream anyways.
Bro knows his ice cream. I was heavily focused on starting an ice cream shop in Arizona before I moved to Thailand and did a lot of learning on this. Cheap ice creams are low quality but if you want the good, creamy, stuff, it’s a lot more expensive. Tillamook is my fav commercially produced ice cream in USA.
Right on. It’s a tough business. Tillamook is a solid choice; I’m still partial to Haagen-Daz just because the milk fat content is so high, it’s a miracle they haven’t cut corners (and Unilever of all places) and seem to instead just decrease carton size/increase prices. Jeni’s used to be my favorite but she sold a controlling stake to private equity circa 2018-ish and the quality tanked after that, it’s been really sad to watch.
VC firms are notorious for being sharks and having myopic vision. Coincidentally, as I was writing my last comment, I was listening to the Halo Top podcast episode of How I Built This and dude had VCs approach him but same deal. Just want to do awful things to lower costs and increase profit and they wanted to start targeting the senile market - like Ensure Nutrition drinks. I do ecomm now, but have been thinking about business in Thailand. I’d like to do CPGs in USA and export phulae pineapples and pack them 4 to a pack with tajin or chili powder + salt. Or I’d like to try and extrapolate the successes of USA and do something like Kona Ice trucks in touristy spots like Phuket, Samui, etc. I think that could smash it out here especially because I do not believe the heat gets better in the future.
Haagen daz is just average ice cream
Agree - overpriced and its not even good tbh. Tons of sugar but the flavours are boring as hell. Good ice cream is called gelato and never had one in Thailand
Gelato isn't Ice Cream, it has less fat. Ice Cream also has more air.
Yeah this is a great indicator for whether to take people seriously with their ice cream opinions
The best gelato I had in my life was at soma chocolate in Toronto! No gelato in Italy could compare
I doubt that tbh.. dont doubt t was your best gelato but in Italy you will find gelato at every corner. Sure, some not as good as others.
Vivin grocery is selling Thailand made cheeses. Good quality stuff at decent-ish prices. Definitely not for the average Thai person, but for expats and middle class they would see it was a interesting local option
Oh very cool, thanks for the lead, I will have to check that out
The reason there are no decent dairy products in Thailand except for imports is because believe it or not there's no milk produced in Thailand. All the local milk you buy is reconstructed milk powder with an exception of 1-2 brands that are already priced more than imported milk and barely enough to supply to a few shelves in high end supermarkets (Dairy Home grass fed). So if you want to make cheese without importing you need milking cows, tens of thousands of it. These fatty cows can't survive in Thailand's hot climate so you need huge barns that are air conditioned. Then you need a milking and pasteurization factory. Then you need a cheese making factory. Maybe possible if you're willing to invest 9 figures. But even then you probably still wouldn't be able to compete with the imported product's prices and quality
Do you have links to any reports on this?
I knew there was a lot imported and maybe I’m missing something here but afaik there is still dairy cows and milk produced In Thailand. Edit: digging around a bit and I guess most of it goes to schools. http://www.sustainability.chula.ac.th/report/2564/
I agree with most of this, Dairyhome makes decent yogurt which is also competitively priced - I do wonder if someone could get bulk pricing from them and make a run at cheese making. Changed my mind and you’d probably have to start at the higher priced soft cheeses, like brie, to have any shot at a success, and then work your way down from that. As you pointed out, the options are pretty limited since the milk fat levels and adequate supply is so small. Plus if I were Dairyhome and someone had success I’d just copy them and cut off their supply.
What absolute nonsense. Of course they produce milk in Thailand. There are thousands of dairy farms in the kingdom. Every single fresh milk product you see in the supermarkets is locally produced. The country exports nearly a third of a million tons of milk annually.
The milk powder is locally mixed with water, yes, if you consider that milk production
Edible cheddar cheese. There is surprisingly a growing artisan cheese scene in Thailand but the ones I've seen are more into French and Italian cheese vs cheddar.
This sounds interesting, thanks.
You ought to be careful about people saying I'd buy that, food products. People say things but never come through.
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How do you get into something like that?? Wtf
I came back to this because I’m so curious. Can you share anything else about his business? Not asking for details about how much he makes or even his website. I’m just super curious about this because it sounds like a logistics company more than anything else, which I find really interesting. How does he go about selling the machines once they’re in Thailand? I wonder who he works with to receive the shipments and where he stores them.
Sorry, what was this comment about? It was deleted before I could read it.
Rain Dancer
If you want to look at imports, check out tour buses. There’s always a strong demand for them, particularly comfortable ones with AC. Manufacturing? Check out solar panels. They’ve been falling I. Price over the last decade and could show strong demand for people and business to lower electricity cost. You could also check out water towers. They are popular in Vietnam and the Philippines. Not sure about Thailand.
A Thai grown tomato that tastes of tomato seems to be a gap in the market here, plenty of sun and water, I don’t understand why it hasn’t been done.
Too much sun. See also grapes. Both suited to warm temperate climates.
When I visited, I didn’t find very many healthy bran-type muffins. Only a few sugary ones. But from what I was told, Thais keep regular not with fibre from wheat but from fruits.
Ignorant Farangs.
There's been a big problem with real American pepperoni for pizza. Pizza mania has had to ration their pepperoni because of it. Also, all-beef hotdogs are basically non existent here. Literally the only place in all of Thailand that has them is Shake Shack. So, not only are they not made domestically, they aren't even imported. Check out Villa Market's hot dog selection, not a Nathan's or Hebrew National in sight. It's really weird because I know there's demand.
I would live on these alone for months if they came here. This is one of the few things I consistently miss from back home
Exactly. I literally had not had one since I left NYC five years ago. I'd searched everywhere for them. Finally, when shake shack opened, I ordered two highly overpriced hot dogs literally ~4 nights a week for at least a month.
Googling now "shake shack near me now" 🤔🤓🤣
It's at central world and emsphere in bangkok.
I said it before in another thread, but what is severely lacking is some construction/renovation company that follows Western building codes and practices. Quality of Thai construction/renovation work is atrocious.
High quality electrician service business would probably make a killing. I often see people looking for someone to do work that doesn't get them electrocuted. Start in Phuket.
I knew someone who was making money as a handyman in Phuket. I’m a qualified spark so I could possibly do similar but honestly I’d be scared to work illegally. It’s my second home here. I want to keep it that way.
Yer would be great for farangs but that’s the exact reason it’s illegal because the Thai government know that farangs would come and dominate that market which would not be great for native Thai people.
Thai government really is fascinating. They will do absolutely everything to keep out foreigners. Even at the severe expense of the country in so many forms.
Huh. I wonder if I should get certified as an electrician in the US before moving to Thailand in a couple of years. I’m a dual citizen, so maybe I could start a school to train up locals properly or something. Then I could hire farang teachers 🤷🏻♂️
Interesting. Honestly I haven’t got a clue. I’m guessing there’s probably a regulatory body here and you’d have to be qualified here to join that. But being qualified in the US would make that process easier. Also I will say just taking the exams probably isn’t enough. You need to have experience in the workplace too. At least in the UK the qualification only really touched on individual practical aspects.
Right, thanks for the reply.
Tourists
Sex-tourists.
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> Chang, Singa and Leo who while being Thai brands, are made outside of Thailand and imported. LOL. No.
Agricultural labour (and labour in a lot of other sectors). A lot could be automated or otherwise replaced by machines. And most of the machines are imported and could be locally produced.
I miss Ben&Jerry’s frozen cookie dough. You can’t really find any here
Margin would be so small though. It’s already very expensive in the west, would only appeal to foreigners and the price would be ridiculous by the time it’s imported.
Not certain but I suspect that’s the issue with 90% of the items on this thread - it’s all stuff farangs want and have no idea if there is a Thai consumer market for them.
That’s a hard one since Thailand has a lot of factories and is a self sustainable country. They do import a lot of crude oil and petroleum and car parts. There’s a large Thai subculture that loves cars and anything car related.
I’ve been in the import business in Thailand for 20 years. It’s a challenging industry unless you have a customer base. Importing goods into Thailand is a move field of tariffs & taxes.
Please import some good quality Common Sense, in bulk. There is an incredible scarsity.
I'm not farang but if I have a chance to rent an e scooter I would .. but the traffic system is chaos so it will take decades
Will it take decades to rent a scooter because the traffic is chaos?
STI’s
I'll give you one that is a specialty food product but could be low overhead. A true Philadelphia soft pretzel. These Auntie Anne soft pretzels that you can find in malls are complete garbage. I don't have any recipes or connections but given the low price I think it's a product that would become very popular. Philly has chains called Philadelphia pretzel factories that do very well.
korean looks
No consumer product that I need or that I'd pay a premium for. Btw they mostly import oil, steel, chemicals etc.
THIS IS REAL. Process this comment OP.
If you could open a chikfila franchise there, you'd make millions
It looks as though you may have spelled "Chick-fil-A" incorrectly. No worries, it happens to the best of us!
Bottled sparkling water / soda water with taste. Thailand has only the small glass bottles that Thais only use as mixer with alcohol. It's embarassing to buy them because everyone thinks i'm an alcoholic while i actually just want sparkling water / soda without sugar in it. (I mix it with lime and frozen berries to make delicious sugar free drinks) In sweden where i'm from there's 1.5 L bottles of sparkling water with various tastes sold for direct consumption. Main brands in sweden called "Loka" and "Ramlösa". Mint chocolate like "after eight". White toblerone. Good kebab (think Stockholm Sweden or Berlin Germany).
A domestic flavored sparkling water just came out called Zuza, it’s really good, like Spindrift in the US. So far they have lime and also pomegranate. Think it’s at Tops and Villa now (and Lazada). Not sure if there’s a market for it but am rooting for them.
I searched Lazada for zuza and found them. Small cans, pretty expensive. I will keep buying the 24 pack of the Leo soda from makro and pour a bottle into a glass with some frozen berries and a squeeze of lime juice:)
Yeah they really need to increase the can volume, I’m with you on that one. And yeah, it is pricey.
tourists
I agree with other commenters that locally raised GOOD beef would be a boon here. Or cheeses, they lack any decent cheese in Thailand outside of Tops market. Body supplies like shower gels and shaving supplies are lacking too. This is a tough question but these are the things I've noticed...
I usually can see them selling local home grown beef meat in thai markets . I know most people avoid them for obvious reasons, but you can definetly get them. At least in the south were many muslims live
Decent sausages ffs. And i mean like the simple irish sausages. Lots of fancy pants german sausages and frozen cancerous english sausages. The gourmet type company they got for it is avg.
I've heard this about sausages before. Noted.
I would do anything that you have a level of expertise in, and you can pretty much make money - and find a market that has nothing to do with westerners. The market for westerners is small in comparison to the domestic market. The first thing that people think is food, there are a lot of experienced food importers in Thailand already. How many western run baked bean importers come and go on Lazada every year. ETs: I misread - I still stand by what I say in the first sentence. Thinking back 30 years, I wish I had become a baker or butcher. I think if you have a level of competency you could make a decent living here butchering animals or baking bread (I know the latter is possible) you can only learn so much from YouTube.
This isn't about import, it's about manufacturing +. 1. Thai people have a lot of fish, but generally they spoil it while getting it salted or sundried. If you do it the right way, there's a small market inside and big outside (for exports): preserved, canned etc. 2. Local spirits are pretty cost-effective, but lack premium. I guess, the only local brand that stands out is Chalong Bay (google it), while cane, rice, sugar, natural flavors etc. is pretty cheap. A possibility to launch a good brand of liquor or liqueur and go international. Size of markets as above. 3. Attractions and infrastructure: theme parks, marinas, cruise piers, boats rentals etc.
Oh! A tinned fish option would be really cool!
German ham, chocolates/sweets off the top of my head
"ประเทศไทยนำเข้าปุ๋ยเคมี" Thailand imports chemical fertilizers Because it is an agricultural country and cannot produce chemical fertilizer itself because the chemical fertilizer production process requires a large amount of petroleum. and oil refinery
Myanmar workers lol
Go to a bunch of shopping malls, see what products are primarily import, in demand and produce it locally. Though, You don’t have to have a novel idea in order to be successful. You can totally take a very common, local product and make it better or any popular import and see if you can produce it locally. For example, in Laos shampoo and shower cream is rather “expensive” and mostly import. How you gonna make a fortune? Produce shampoo locally in a professional environment and sell it at a price that matches the local economy. I’ll bet you $100.000 that people will definitely prefer liquid soup/shampoo over soap bars if they can get it at a reasonable price. Even some of the imported liquid soaps here sell for like $3. Meaning, if you can replicate the same quality locally and sell it below the cheapest import, you’ll make hell lot of money.
Import duties can be crippling, depending on the products.. some, like used cars, motorbikes and parts are completely forbidden..
1. Importing premium coffee beans and selling B2B 2. Import used and refurbished iPhones, laptops, routers, switches
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Posts and comments should be on-topic for /r/Thailand. Contributions that have no relevance or that aim to derail conversation will be removed. This includes comments and posts about off-topic issues, e.g. US politics, the Middle East, etc, unless Thailand is specifically part of the issue.
Beef Jerky
A device that removes the need to burn rice and other fields
Pretty sure they invented the plow thousands of years ago.
Appliances and Electronics. I believe they can be produced in Thailand.
Soy bean for Vitamilk.
It’s not about what would sell, it’s about what connections in distribution do you have to leverage? Without a personal relationship developed in retail you will be snuffed out by the bigger fish eventually.
French fries
Big c and metro have 1kg packages starting at 89 baht
Imported?
Good beef, good cheese.
microprocessors
I've had this one idea and I'm still trying to figure out how to make it work. It's not imports but maybe you can run with it? Instead of building your own small business, why not buy other businesses that are already profitable and stable? An example I've been given from the states is to buy a laundromat, hire staff to run it, then add in other businesses to that location that they also manage such as soap dispensers, snack machines, pickup and delivery washing and folding service, etc. Then repeat in multiple locations. This is just an example. Could be carwash service or housekeeping agency or dog walking agency, etc. I'm mostly brainstorming here but I feel like there might be a lot of opportunity along this line. Who would sell a profitable business? Elders who are ready to retire but whose kids have left to work in other countries or for whatever other reason they have no one to take over OR the business owner who got lucky and is moving away to marry their lover in another country but doesn't want to just close the business they've been nurturing like a baby for years. Also can be done in the digital market by buying digital businesses. Also can be managed from pretty much anywhere with little overhead in the parent business so minimal admin staff, everyone can work remote, no formal office space needed to rent, etc. I think importing would be very very difficult for all the reasons mentioned above. Exporting can be very very good, though. I've known or known of several people with clothing businesses because textiles and labor can be very inexpensive here. As an example
Roling tobbaco
They grow 'baccy next door to my mates parents place outside of Maha Sarakham. Legal.
That's good to know. It's still as rare as rocking horse shit. The only rolling tobbaco I found in Pattaya was UK import being sold by Brits for double the price.
Wheat
Construction equipment, cars, basically anything that requires engineering
Dirty old men.
This is going to sound nuts, as the market isn't there yet for it, but Thailand doesn't have any good Mexican food. More specifically, it sorely lacks in corn tortillas. Last trip I was there, I did see some import brand flour tortillas in a super market, but no corn. That's something that would be extremely cheap to manufacture in-country. Just need corn, salt, water, and depending on style, lard. The problem is audience. Thai's don't seem to like Mexican food all that much, so there isn't a large native audience for it. However, Thailand is tracking to hit 40 million tourists/year in the near future, many of whom would love a taco. So the approach is two fold. Start small scale tortilla production and open up taco stands in high tourist neighborhoods. Start real simple. Chicken or beef. Chopped onions and cilantro. Optional pico de gallo and hot sauce as the only available condiments. Sell them for like 30 baht each, or whatever just covers cost. The food stand isn't the end goal. The goal is to get other restaurants to start offering tacos, thus requiring tortillas. If they see farang lining up at your stand, others will copy. Pitch them to hotels too. Huevos rancheros takes almost no training to make for a hotel cook, yet yields an entirely new spin on a breakfast dish.
Cheese
bottom of the barrel farang men!
Farangs
In general business opportunities do not exist....
Men who don’t fare well with ladies in their home country. Size:xxl naive is popular
Chipmachines
Laborers from nearby countries... You know which ones.
Foreign Influences
what is the aircon like there and what are the problems/benefits, what would one pay for a single split unit in their home
Fat farangs
The government own the ports, the tax rates, and the tax rates that go with jt. It's a non starter
You've misunderstood, he doesn't want to import anything. He wants to produce something that is currently being imported.
Foreigners
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Alright, so then cooking ingredients maybe would do well? If I'd be able to grow chilli as someone suggested or gourmet mushrooms or other products and then sell them to restaurants maybe or have a shop?
Doing market research on Reddit???
Didn’t think of it that way, but hey, whatever works, sure. Just collecting ideas.
Buffalo
Russian tourists
Farang
This might be a bit difficult to farm lol
So you want someone to give you a buisness idea so you can make money not them? 555
Nobody's stopping them from making money off it too. I'm just trying, see if people want to share ideas.
Thailand could really use a few nuclear power plants. Most Thai electricity is made from fuel oil or coal. These dirty sources are to be used for Thailand's EV future.
Think solar. Nuclear is also dirty, would you trust the government with the disposal of nuclear waste?
Lady boy
Tried that in Sukh 11. Riot ensued.