A press release on Thursday said the five companies, Agristo, Bart’s Potato Company, Clarebout Potatoes, Ecofrost and Mydibel, will be participating under the “Belgian Fries” banner to heighten awareness of Belgian fries in Thailand and the region.

The five companies represent the five biggest family-owned businesses in the industry in Belgium offering a wide range of potato products and specialties that are exported to over 100 countries worldwide.

Their participation to Thaifex is part of a five-nation promotion campaign in Southeast Asia, coordinated by VLAM and Belgapom, the association for the Belgian potato trade and processing industry.

Romain Cools from Belgapom, said: “Hot on the heels of exhibiting in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Singapore, we are pleased to bring Belgian fries to Thailand this time round, as part of our plan to increase our presence in the Southeast Asian region.

“There is an existing market in this region for our products, but we see an even bigger opportunity to expand exports and heighten appreciation for our national delicacy. Southeast Asia is one of the largest fast-growing regions of the world, with a rising middle class, rapid urbanisation and an overall young population.

“These trends, together with Belgium’s high food standards and innovation, will continue to drive demand in the region and beyond, and our industry is ready to reply to this in an original way, since our Belgian fries are truly different from those from other countries.

“Thailand is well-known as a food-lover’s paradise, and Thai consumers really know and love good food. Belgian fries are still relatively unknown in Thailand, so we are excited about this opportunity to share one of Belgium’s most beloved national dishes with Thailand.

“Golden yellow and crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, Belgian fries, or frites, as we call them, are a true Belgian delicacy that is delicious either as a side served with steak, or as an appetising snack with a mayonnaise-based sauce!”

Along with that, Belgian Fries is the ‘Official Premium Partner for Belgian fries Back to Basic Dip and Topping Sauce Challenge’ and will also be seen participating in Thailand Ultimate Chef Challenge.

Belgium is the largest exporter of frozen fries in the world, with 90% of its production freighted to the global market. In 2018, Belgian companies processed an astonishing 5 million tonnes of potatoes.

In a press release on Thursday, the company said just over half of CEOs are confident they will succeed, with 53 per cent projecting cautious three-year growth of up to 2 per cent.

As with 2018, they are also maintaining a positive three-year growth outlook for the global economy, although this has slightly fallen from 67 to 62 per cent over the last 12 months. This confidence is also shown by their commitment to hire, with 36 per cent of CEOs projecting to add more than 6 per cent to their workforce in the next three years.

“A successful CEO now needs to be an agile CEO,” said Bill Thomas, Global Chairman, KPMG International. “Succeeding in a world of volatility and uncertainty requires different leadership skills, particularly in large, multi-national organisations. It’s no longer a question of simply defending your position and using scale to maintain competitive advantage.

“Today, CEOs need to be comfortable disrupting their business models by forging new strategic partnerships, considering alternate M&A strategies and increasing the skills of their workforces.”

CEOs named climate change the biggest risk to their organisation’s growth, the first time in five years it was rated a top concern compared to technological, territorial, cyber and operational risks. But with only a small margin between each of them, it paints a picture of a complex and ever shifting risk landscape.

A majority of CEOs (84 per cent) believe a ‘fail-fast’ culture is required in today’s marketplace, in which lessons from failures are learned quickly, yet only 56 per cent say that kind of culture is in place in their organisation. Eight out of 10 CEOs (84 per cent) are therefore looking to change the makeup of their leadership teams to disrupt the status quo.

Cyber continues to be high on the CEO agenda, despite falling from the second highest risk last year to fourth this year. In 2019, a larger group of CEOs (69 per cent vs 55 per cent in 2018) are prioritising the creation of a robust cyber security strategy, and most (71 per cent) view information security as a key factor in their broader innovation strategy.

For many CEOs, M&A presents the best opportunity to upgrade digital capabilities with pace. A proactive M&A strategy is on the agenda for 84 percent of CEOs who have a moderate-to-high M&A appetite for the next three years. Driving this appetite is the ability of M&A to transform a business model faster than organic growth.

“In Thailand, the M&A landscape is also going strong due to a combination of the ASEAN Economic Community, infrastructure investment for 5G technology, and the emergence of Thailand as a stronger regional and global player,” says Winid Silamongkol, Chief Executive Officer, KPMG in Thailand.

“From KPMG in Thailand’s survey done on M&A within Thailand, 88 per cent of the survey respondents expected to make at least one more acquisition in Thailand within the next five years, with 65 per cent expecting to do at least two, and almost a quarter expecting to do more than six. This is a good opportunity for companies in various industry to transform and expand their business through M&A.”