This year's top 10 most-read APAC food and beverage brand stories feature a range of well-known brand names, from big brand names like Mondelez, Nestle and Heineken as well as up-and-coming brands like cell-based milk firm Turtletree Labs.
Click through the gallery to see them all.
This year's top 10 most-read food and beverage brand stories feature a range of well-known brand names, from big brand names like Mondelez, Nestle and Heineken as well as up-and-coming brands like cell-based milk firm Turtletree Labs.
Click through the gallery to see them all.
At the time of India’s nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19, Coca-Cola India, Nestle India and various other big MNCs in the country called for F&B manufacturing to be made an ‘essential service’ in order to keep shelves stocked and avoid further panic.
India’s nationwide lockdown of some 1.3 billion people started at midnight on March 25 and was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi the evening of March 24 via a televised speech, barely four hours before the lockdown took effect, sending the country into a panic buying frenzy.
‘Essential services’ were purportedly going to continue functioning, but Modi did not detail what these would be in his speech. He later added on his Twitter that ‘Centre and State Governments will ensure all essentials are available’ and pleaded with the public to stop panic-buying, but with little effect.
With regard to food items, the guidelines stated that: “Shops, including ration shops (under PDS), dealing with food, groceries, fruits and vegetables, dairy and milk booths, meat and fish, animal fodder.
“However, district authorities may encourage and facilitate home delivery to minimise the movement of individuals outside their homes.”
No clarification was provided as to the scope of food businesses that would be allowed to continue to function apart from retailers, leaving food suppliers and manufacturers in the dark.
This prompted big food manufacturing firms such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, Britannia Industries, Mondelez, PepsiCo and more to submit letters to the government requesting for the F&B manufacturing sector to be deemed as an ‘essential service’ and thus exempted from restrictions under the lockdown in order to continue production.
Read the full story here.
Mondelez Australia trialled its first 100% sustainable and 100% recyclable paper packaging on chocolates produced for overseas delivery in February this year to test the wrapper’s operational durability in transit.
According to the firm, the material used for this packaging was a ‘fully-sealed paper material’, and did not contain ‘laminates, foils or plastics’.
“Many existing paper-based food wraps have a thin plastic film to protect the product, however the paper used in the trial acts as the barrier to protect food and ensure freshness,” said Mondelez.
The firm’s Director of Marketing for Cadbury, Paul Chatfield, added that: “We are committed to making 100% of our packaging recyclable by 2025. [Given] this is a world-first for us and the material is at the leading edge of packaging innovation, we’re committed to finding innovative solutions to the sustainability challenges facing the planet.
“With waste being just one part of the lifecycle of a product, we need to ensure the total environmental impact of a packaging material is considered. There’s no point adopting an alternative packaging material that minimises waste, but has a larger carbon footprint.”
Mondelez implemented the trial at its Claremont, Australia factory on its Cadbury Energy product, which the firm produces at Claremont for export to New Zealand.
Read the full story here.
Singapore start-up TurtleTree Labs started producing milk in the laboratory using stem cells earlier this year.
The technology involves using stem cells to create mammary gland cells that can lactate. TurtleTree’s says its method of producing milk is 98% more carbon efficient than regular milk production practices.
The firm’s founder and CEO, Lin Fengru, told FoodNavigator-Asia the stem cells were derived from four different sources of mammal milk, including bovine (cow’s milk) as well as humans, the latter for its lab-produced breast milk.
She also told us the patented technology was different from what other companies in the cell-based dairy industry have created.
“We are not trying to recreate the different components of milk, which a lot of companies are trying to do. We are creating the real cow’s milk which eventually can turn into other dairy products like butter and cheese.”
Read the full story here.
Nestle Malaysia expressed strong confidence in post-COVID-19 recovery when we spoke to them in June, with the firm accelerating its e-commerce drive at products with an ‘at-home’ focus.
This was very much in line with trends in the food and beverage industry emerging in the Asia Pacific region since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak struck, especially in countries that have moved into a ‘recovery phase’ such as China, where a further boom has been predicted for e-commerce platforms in general.
Nestle Malaysia said it adapted to the ‘new normal’ by evolving according to consumer trends.
“Whilst it is difficult to anticipate the full extent of the changes this pandemic will trigger, we [are] confident in our ability to tap into new opportunities for growth in 2020,” Nestle Malaysia CEO Juan Aranols said.
“We are capturing growth opportunities across all channels, including e-commerce acceleration and the increased demand for home-delivery products – [so will look at] expanding the range of Nestle products available for consumers shopping online.”
Read the full story here.
New Zealand alternative protein firm Sustainable Foods told us back in August that it is planning a 2021 launch for its hemp-based meat analogues, which will be made will locally-grown hemp and processed using a private hydroelectric power plant.
The hemp-based meat will be marketed under the firm’s retail brand The Craft Meat Co, which already sells a range of plant-based products including mince, burgers, sausages and ready meals.
“Most of our products already include some hemp for its nutritional value, but the new meat analogue will be using hemp as its base which means it will have a total consumable protein content that is higher than even that of animal-based protein sources due to hemp being naturally so high in protein,” Sustainable Foods Co-founder Kyran Rei told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“Hemp-based meat will also contain very high levels of dietary fibre, up to 19% of the recommended dietary intake (RDI), an benefit that is not available from traditional animal meat or in many other plant-based meats.”
“Hemp is a very viable crop for New Zealand growing conditions, and we are partnering with medical cannabis producer Greenfern Industries as our exclusive grower to make our hemp-based meat analogues from 100% locally-grown hemp.”
Rei also highlighted that Greenfern Industries had built its own hydroelectric power plant, complete with a dam and electricity generator, and this would power the processing and production of its products, vastly increasing the sustainability of its processes.
Read the full story here.
Heineken and Tiger Beer told us in May that it took measures earlier in the year to revise marketing strategies and double-down on product innovation after seeing online sales surge after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak hit on-trade consumption.
Both Heineken and Tiger are operated by HEINEKEN APAC in the Asia Pacific region. Despite losses from on-site beer consumption wrought by lockdowns throughout the region, the firm has maintained that online sales have more than made up for this.
“Where countries have to close F&B outlets and implement some form of lockdown as part of safe distancing measures, we [have seen] an impact on the sale of our beers,” HEINEKEN APAC Heineken and Tiger Brand Director Maud Meijboom told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“The impact has differed by brand, for example whether they have a significant footprint in the F&B outlets, [and] for newer products it also depends on what channels we are looking at, e.g. new products we have launched in retail are performing in line with the trend in that channel.
“[That said], online sales are going up for us during this period for two reasons: With safe distancing measures in place, a number of countries have implemented closure of F&B businesses and confined people at home. The lack of options is a boost for online sales, where available."
Read the full story here.
Asia’s biggest food and beverage brands successfully retained their top FMCG rankings and outpaced overall category growth throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with major players topping new lists from China to South East Asia.
This was according to the Kantar Asia Brand Footprint 2020 ranking report, which saw F&B brands dominate the Top Ten Most Chosen Brands listings for all the countries covered: China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
According to the report, ‘big brands are winning’ across Asia based on growth rates and consumer choice, with just about all major brands being chosen by consumers at higher rates than average category growth rates.
Deeper analysis of the numbers saw food, beverage and dairy brands take up all 10 of the Top Ten lists in Malaysia and Korea, nine in Taiwan and Vietnam, eight in China and Thailand, and six in Indonesia and Philippines.
Rankings were based on Consumer Reach Points (CRPs), which were calculated based on population, penetration (percentage of households buying the brand) and consumer choice (interactions with brand across categories). Kantar tracked the consumer purchases across five categories: Beverages, Food, Dairy, Beauty and Personal Care, and Homecare.
Read the full story here.
Meat substitute product OmniMeat was launched to the Singapore retail market earlier this year after notching-up success in the foodservice sector, with Japan and the UK next on the brand’s hitlist.
The product was developed by food-tech company, Right Treat, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based retailer Green Monday.
Dorothy Ma, the firm’s development and communications manager explained how foodservice was a crucial stepping stone to retail.
“We hoped to let consumers try OmniMeat which is cooked by professional chefs and have a concept of how this plant-based meat taste like. Once they have a concept of this new plant-based ingredients, they create a need and want to cook it at home, so we launched the retail pack afterwards.”
Ma believes OmniMeat will be widely accepted in this region: “We think the Asian consumer is happy to try the plant-based meat as they aware that plant-based option is much healthier and friend to earth.”
The firm spent two years developing OmniMeat, which comprised of a proprietary blend of plant-based protein from peas, non-GMO soy, shiitake mushrooms and rice.
Read the full story here.
Beverage giant Coca-Cola experienced some delays in its artificial sweetener supply chain from China as a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) in March this year.
This was expected to have affected production of its diet and no-sugar drinks, which include brands like Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Aquarius, and Minute Maid.
While the company did not reveal which sweeteners were affected, its 10-K annual report filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, revealed sucralose as a ‘critical raw material’ sourced from China.
The company purchases non-nutritive sweeteners, such as sucralose from suppliers in the United States and China. Other non-nutritive sweeteners used in its business include aspartame, acesulfame potassium, saccharin, cyclamate and steviol glycosides.
Read the full story here.
In June, Nestle China responded to criticism from the plant-based industry about its CNY730m (CHF100m/US$98.9m) investment and plant-based facility, when public concerns were surfaced over the lack of detail and sustainability focus.
According to the firm’s initial statement, the investment would go towards strengthening its footprint in China, enhancing its product portfolio with ‘innovative and premium products’, and the company’s first production facility in Asia for plant-based products.
Other projects under this investment include an upgrade of its existing Chengzhen Wafer line, a new Quality Assurance Centre, and capacity expansion for its existing pet food plant in Tianjin via new production lines.
“In recent years, the food sector has undergone a quiet revolution as people are choosing more and more healthy, nutritious, and environmentally friendly foods. To meet this demand, Nestlé has decided to step up its focus on the plant-based category and invest in a new production facility at Tianjin Economic Development Zone (TEDA),” said the firm of the plant-based facility in particular.
“By investing more in latest technologies to create products using plant, Nestlé will help to reduce carbon emissions.”
Read the full story here.
