Bangkok, Thailand, February 9, 2026 — The Mekong Institute’s (MI) Agricultural Development and Commercialization (ADC) Department is calling for greater digitalization of agricultural trade, along with increased financing for digital systems and stronger small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) inclusion, to address persistent gaps that continue to limit agricultural value chains in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).
Speaking at the 79th EXCOM: Regional Policy Forum hosted by Thailand’s Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) and the Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA), MI’s ADC Director, Ms. Orn-uma Polpanich, said that “digitalization is now the backbone of trade; hence, competitive agricultural trade requires interoperable digital systems, from customs to certification.”
Ms. Orn-uma was sharing her department’s assessment of agricultural value chains and trade integration across ASEAN when she made the recommendation at the forum’s technical session on Regulatory Convergence to Facilitate Cross-Border Trade (CBT) of Agricultural Products. She said that ASEAN has already built an impressive set of trade agreements and food policy frameworks, including the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), ASEAN Solutions for Investments, Services, and Trade (ASSIST), and the ASEAN Integrated Food Security (AIFS) Framework, to name a few. Tariffs on most agricultural goods have largely been eliminated, digital customs tools are operational, and food safety cooperation has improved. During COVID-19, coordinated ASEAN measures even helped prevent major food shortages, demonstrating that regional cooperation delivers results when alignment is strong.
Yet many smallholders, SMEs, and emerging agri-entrepreneurs still struggle to fully benefit from CBT opportunities. “The issue is not the absence of policies. The challenge is connecting them, implementing them across borders, and making them work for the people who actually trade,” said Ms. Orn-uma, when asked how regional trade frameworks can be translated into real opportunities for farmers and agribusinesses.
The ADC director added that the issue is particularly important to the GMS, which sits at the heart of ASEAN’s agricultural economy and produces high-value crops and processed foods for regional and global markets.
Aside from encouraging greater digitalization of agricultural trade systems, MI’s ADC Department also recommends harmonizing standards and simplifying market access compliance processes to enable greater SME participation. Crop insurance, blended finance, and regional investment platforms are likewise seen as essential tools for de-risking SME engagement. Development banks and private investors are considered critical partners, while strengthening public-private partnerships (PPPs) is viewed as key to scaling innovations beyond the pilot stage.
According to Ms. Orn-uma, solutions need to be tailored to the GMS, where value chains are dominated by SMEs and smallholders, and agricultural exports are often perishable and vulnerable to transboundary pests, diseases, climate shocks, food safety checks, and related restrictions that increasingly disrupt trade flows. This means solutions must be practical and risk-aware, not just technically compliant.
Examples of practical and transformative solutions include digital sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and e-certification systems that can reduce the time and cost of agricultural CBT. ASEAN’s Strategic Action Plan for SME Development (SAP-SMED) can serve as a bridge connecting farmers and SMEs to regional markets, while aligning trade facilitation with food safety and climate resilience efforts can help eliminate costly policy silos.
These recommendations are drawn from the ADC Department’s systematic regional assessment, which reviewed ASEAN agreements and mechanisms, consulted government agencies, businesses, and regional institutions, and identified key policy and implementation gaps.
