Cargill Texturizing Solutions (CTS) said its sales and customer service in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, will “facilitate greater collaboration with customers” enabling the company to offer products direct, rather than through distributors.
CTS said that the move was in response to recent growth in markets in the region.
It follows the opening of Cargill’s South East Asia Food Application Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, earlier this year to bring its product formulation expertise for palm oil refining, texturizing and flavoring businesses under one roof.
Brian Pert, CTS sales manager, Australia and New Zealand, said: “Over the past few years, Australia and New Zealand have become significant areas of investment for many of our customers, such as those in the dairy industry, producing not only for local distribution but also for export to Asia Pacific and beyond.”
He added that its sales and customer service teams would now be on hand to provide food manufacturers with texturizing products tailored to the needs and specificities of Australian and New Zealand markets.
And from January, rather than using distributors, it will be able to offer direct its portfolio of texturizing ingredients - including hydrocolloids, soy flours, starches, lecithins, cultures and enzymes and multi-component functional systems.
Asia Pacific
Dr Weiyu Fan, regional director, Asia Pacific, for Cargill’s texturizing business commented: “By drawing upon the knowledge from Cargill’s other food ingredients businesses, which have been based in Australia for several years, including grain and oilseeds, starches and sweeteners, health and nutrition - our sales teams will be able to go beyond texturizing solutions and explore fully integrated offers for our customers.
“The teams can also tap into the expertise of scientists and technicians working in Cargill’s Asia Pacific R&D centers and Technical Service laboratories in China, Malaysia, and Japan.”
Euromonitor International’s growth forecast for the dairy market in South East Asian countries alone showed that between 2007 and 2012, Indonesia will see a 60 percent growth, Malaysia nine percent, Philippines 38 percent, Singapore 16 percent and Thailand 29 percent.