The brand was founded by Jurong Cold Store (JCS), a cold chain logistics and warehousing company for the food and beverage industry, which also runs JCS Shrimps.
The company owns five farms on 400 hectares of land in Indonesia for cultivating seawater shrimps in concrete ponds. It manages the production of shrimps from farm to packaging, supplying 4,000 tonnes of frozen shrimps annually.
Before JiaTaste was launched, the discarded shrimp heads were upcycled into animal feed.
Following co-founder Lee Belinda’s retirement, she toyed with the idea of utilising these shrimp heads to create a ready-to-cook paste for prawn noodle soup, a well-loved local dish.
She then spent 10 months on R&D before she was satisfied with the taste and finalised the product named Singapore Prawn Mee Paste.
The paste is made using shrimp heads from JCS’s farm, which is claimed to bring about the “deep flavour and aroma” of the soup brewed from it.
“Once you try it, you will taste the ‘real deal’ that even other renowned sauce brands can’t replicate. There is plenty of work involved in making prawn noodle soup, from going to the market to buy shrimp heads to frying them and brewing the broth — a process that can take hours.
“Therefore, the most important thing about our paste is that consumers don’t need to go through all the hassle. Convenience food doesn’t always taste good, but with our product, you can save a lot of time and enjoy a delicious flavour at the same time,” Lee, who is now senior independent director at JiaTaste, told FoodNavigator-Asia at Seafood Expo Asia.
The product is currently being sold on e-commerce platform Shopee in Singapore, and supplied to food service operators and partners, such as Singapore Airlines.
It is also exported to countries including China, the US and UK.
According to Lee, some vendors in Singapore-style food courts in London and New York are using the Prawn Mee Paste for their dishes.
She added that a reason for the company’s participation in trade shows is to seek further overseas expansion opportunities, especially in western markets, where they have observed that a proportion of consumers “really appreciate” Asian flavours, such as spiciness.
In the domestic market, sales on Shopee have been encouraging.
“Actually, our profit margin for the retail product (150g) is very low, which is why we focused more on food service and export initially. But we later decided to let local consumers try it as well, and the response on Shopee has been fantastic.
“In fact, supermarket chains like Sheng Siong and Prime Supermarket have approached us, but we are still considering due to the cost of shelf space. Even if we adopt the ‘small profits and quick returns’ approach, it might not be commercially viable.”
Versatility as a plus point
Apart from prawn noodle soup, the paste can be used to make a variety of dishes, such as Hokkien mee (stir-fried prawn noodles), spaghetti, and hotpot soup base.
These cooking tips are featured on JiaTaste’s TikTok account, as part of its marketing efforts.
“In addition, consumers can also customise to their liking. For example, you can choose to add pork bones, vegetables and other ingredients to create many different flavours out of our product,” Lee said.
