While the overall damage caused by the flooding in Thailand is not clear at this stage, the impact on supply chains warrants careful attention, given that Japanese firms, especially in automobile-related industries, have expanded their overseas production facilities for finished goods and parts and components, including in Thailand, in recent years.
However, a strategy has not yet been put in place to integrate sugar cane and other agricultural production into a layered, mutually reinforcing agricultural and agro-industrial sector. I believe that an integrated sector, building on the established institutions in agriculture and food processing, has significant potential for foreign exchange earnings and growth.