The Future of Sustainable Beverages: Trends and Insights

By Khachiphan Bunsiri, Harmless Harvest

With the rising awareness of health and wellness across all generations, beverages are considered completely discretionary. People now prioritize clean drinking water for hydration and avoid beverages that contain unnecessary sugar, additives, or flavorings. Therefore, it is crucial for beverages to offer meaningful functionality along with excellent taste. For instance, natural coconut water provides hydration and refreshment, kombucha promotes digestive health, and herbal shots can offer immune support. In the United States, some recently successful functional beverage brands, such as Olipop, Vive, and Suja have transitioned from niche to the mainstream market. To develop new products and stay on top of the latest trends, beverage companies need to be vigilant in staying up with emerging trends at the right time.

In addition to product innovations, consumers are increasingly demanding sustainable brands and considering the societal and environmental impact of their purchasing decisions. This has led to a recent business trend across various sectors, where companies strive to develop profitable brands that also address social and environmental problems.

One key sustainability trend that captures the attention of beverage consumers is the shift away from plastic. Consumer research conducted by companies reveals that plastic packaging consistently ranks among the top consumer complaints. Since packaging is an integral part of the product that consumers directly experience and compare with other products on the shelf, beverage companies must stay updated on sustainable packaging innovations that align with their products.

Another global sustainability priority for beverage companies revolves around climate change. The food and beverage industry alone accounts for more than one-fourth of global emissions1. When breaking down the emissions from food and beverage production, major sources include agricultural commodities, waste management, energy consumption, transportation and distribution, and packaging. Moreover, the detrimental impact of climate change poses a significant threat to food security and livelihoods of farmers around the world.

Regenerative Agriculture for Sustainable Food Production

Since the Green Revolution, conventional agriculture has proved its efficiency in highyield production to feed the growing population. However, it also leads to other issues such as GHG emissions, soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, and environmental contamination which hinder long-term food security.

The recent sustainable farming movement in the US introduces ‘regenerative agriculture’ which was built upon organic farming principles. The concept focuses on restoring soil health, promoting local biodiversity, and recycling of farm resources. Key practice in regenerative farming includes minimizing soil disturbance, keeping soil covered, maintaining living roots all year-round, integrating animals, and maximizing species diversity. When implemented robustly, regenerative farming systems not only enhances a farm’s climate resiliency but also has the potential to reverse climate change2 through soil carbon sequestration. Due to the wide range of environmental impacts, many large food and beverage companies are embracing regenerative agriculture to achieve corporate carbon reduction and sustainable sourcing.

Partnerships for Change in Thai Agriculture

The increasing demand of organic and sustainably sourced products together with the warning from scientists on the El Niño event could impact Thailand’s future agricultural trade. Conventionally farmed products, especially those targeting US and EU markets, may lose their competitiveness while farms and agricultural supply chains may be vulnerable to disruptions caused by severe drought and extreme heat.

In order to confront these market and climate challenges, farmers and agricultural businesses in Thailand must adapt and prepare. Regenerative agriculture could be a crucial solution to support the country’s agricultural sector. Nonetheless, the majority of Thai farmers still practice conventional farming methods and lack awareness of the concept of regenerative farming. An effective campaign is needed to prompt immediate change among Thai farmers, encouraging them to adopt regenerative farming practices and restore their farm ecosystem before the adverse effects of climate change become irreversible.

Business, development organizations, and the government need to align their policies and business strategy and effectively communicate the shared message to farmers. Companies could consider establishing formal partnerships to strengthen their commitment to promoting positive change in the industry and engaging a wide range of stakeholders such as academy, relevant government units, international experts, community leaders to identify suitable approach and solutions for different stages of project implementation. Each partner’s expertise and funding can provide necessary support to farmers, such as knowledge packages and farm inputs, ultimately leading to transformative changes on the farms. An example of such an initiative is the Regenerative Coconut Agriculture Project (ReCAP), which introduces regenerative farming concept to coconut farmers in central Thailand, promoting sustainable practices such as cover cropping, integrating stingless bees, or producing compost from farm residue.

An essential approach to successfully convincing smallholder farmers to adopt or invest in new practices is to share successful case studies from their peers or farmer influencers. Companies can identify farmer leaders or pioneer farmers and support them with knowledge and necessary input to test the new practices. While it may take a few years to see the successful outcomes, these farmers can serve as influential advocates, speaking from their own experiences and effortlessly convincing other farmers to follow suit.

Conclusion

Food and beverage companies need to adapt to consumers’ trends, which are leaning towards healthier and more environmentally friendly products. While at the same time they want to remain competitive while working with farmers to promote sustainable farming, ensuring it’s a longterm supply chain of agricultural raw materials, and reducing their environmental footprint. Regenerative organic agriculture, which is a new trend among the food and beverage sector could be the solution to both marketing and climate challenges. However, the slow adoption of sustainable farming practices by farmers poses a threat to the industry. Therefore, a cross-sector partnership and the inclusion of a wide range of stakeholders are needed to transform Thai agriculture and ensure resilience in the sector.

References:

• Our World in Data. (2022) Emissions by Sector, accessed May 27, 2023

• Rodale’s Institute. (2020) - Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Carbon Solution [White paper].

• The Nation - (January 20, 2023) Thailand is now the world’s 13th largest exporter of agricultural products. [accessed July 17, 2023]

Khachiphan (Wawa) Bunsiri is a sustainability manager at Harmless Harvest leading corporate sustainability strategy and regenerative agriculture partnership project.