Mr. Roland POUPON is a founder and partner of businesses in the fields of food and agriculture since 1993: Eridan, STPI, FST, WFS on one hand (all food trading companies with total revenues of 20 millions euros in 2017) and Resto Thais on the other hand (a group of Thai restaurants in Lyon, with total revenues of 1.5 million euros in 2017). He recently retired from Eridan to focus on a new project: the creation and development of Aqua Baan, an aquaculture services company that targets African emerging markets. Such experience has endowed me with a recognized expertise in international food- and agriculture-related issues. For example, he was asked in December 2001 to present in Paris the development of Thailand's agriculture to the 5th EU-ASEAN Forum chaired by Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, who was then to become WTO Director-General.
He has also been leading consultancy assignments for such well-known organizations as FAO, BCI, Danone, Roquette, CP, Mitrpol, etc. And his company STPI, based in Bangkok, provides consulting in Southeast Asia. The services are rendered to policy makers and corporation leaders wishing to improve their performance and/or their knowledge of small-and-medium-scale business. Additionally, he has been a Fellow Researcher on Agriculture in Thailand at IRASEC Research Institute since 2004. His latest publications in this regard are: "Alternatives agricoles en Thailand" - Kailash ed. 2010, "The Thai Food Complex - From the Rice Fields to Industrial and Organic Foods" - White Lotus Ed. 2013 and "Les conglomérats agro-industriels sud-est asiatiques, stratégie et gouvernance", 2016. In parallel, he has been speaking at various University Conferences in Bangkok, Vancouver, Kuala lumpur, Montréal and Kaohsiung.
