Since its inception around two decades ago, Taokaenoi has established itself as a clear market leader for seaweed-based snacks - essentially dominating a snacking category that is fairly niche compared to corn-based or wheat-based snacks.
That said, the firm has continued to pour significant effort into developing a fully fleshed-out portfolio with a wide variety of flavours and formats over the years to maintain its market leadership.
“Seaweed snacks have an advantage over many other types of snacks in the market today as seaweed is naturally high in various nutrients and minerals, but we are aware that we cannot solely depend on these benefits to appeal to consumers,” Taokaenoi Chief International Trade Officer Wachira Yarnthasanakij told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“This is why although we are well-known within this sector, we have worked hard to ensure we are not relying only on being a seaweed snack but a delicious snack with many types of flavours and formats to suit any occasion.
“We also place a lot of importance on localised innovation because over the years we have learned that consumers across the various markets really can have very varying tastes and we need to cater to these.
“This difference is clear even across our four top markets which are China, Indonesia, North America and Malaysia – China very clearly prefers sweeter snacks compared to the others, whereas in the United States consumers are on the lookout for spicy-sour flavour combinations.”
Across its current presence in over 35 markets, Taokaenoi’s main star SKU remains its flat seaweed strip format in various flavours but its localisation efforts have led the firm to create many different product formats ranging from tempura pieces to grilled strips and rice topping flakes.
“So for the US some of the localised items for this market include the Chilli and Lime-flavoured strips to meet the spicy-sour flavour trend, as well as the tempura seaweed range which continues to be one of the most popular there,” he said.
“For China we launched the Mango Sticky Rice flavour in a rolled format in order to fulfil a demand for both a sweet snack as well as the convenience factor, because the rolls are packed individually.
“We also have had some interesting innovations for the local Thai market in order to ensure continued consumer excitement, such as the Super Crisp range with more intense spicy flavours like hot chilli squid, as well as seaweed flakes made to be used as toppings for rice in order to tap on the Hallyu wave and strong positive association seaweed has with Korean food.”
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