Food & Beverage Trailblazers

Ready-to-cook (RTC) pastes can tap the rising at-home cooking boom in Asia by including a combo of heritage and convenience in their innovations.

Singapore’s Petale Tea believes it has found a unique niche in the market for premium, personalised consumption in the shape of blooming tea balls.

Australia-based The Calmer Co believes that kava-based drinks are well-positioned as part of the second generation of low-to-no alcohol (NOLO) beverages, providing relaxation functional benefits in addition to being an alternative to booze.

Singapore-based children’s food firm HaruPlate is looking to tap on mediums of gameplaying as well as cultural influences to get kids in the APAC region to first eat at all, then eat healthier.

Australia’s Tummy Buddies believes that healthier product innovation for children needs to focus on bright colours and visual appeal in order to secure that crucial first purchase.

Singapore-based Flojo believes that it has found a sweet spot in Asia's beverage market with an AI-powered ‘productivity drink’ targeting consumers who regularly use a lot of brain power.

Tempeh chips brand Mamame has highlighted the multiple nutritional benefits of black-eyed beans as a key factor behind its success in the APAC healthy snacking sector, fuelling its upcoming growth into the UK and US markets as well.

New Zealand nut butter specialist Forty Thieves believes that its flexibility in providing smaller packaging options as well as a dedicated keto range is driving growth across the region.

Singapore cultivated seafood firm Umami Bioworks believes that strategic mergers are crucial to overcome doubts about the sector and achieve buy-in from major brands which can help the category scale-up.

Focusing on flexitarians and doubling down on the perceived health benefits of consuming less meat and dairy is the best way for APAC’s sluggish plant-based sector to secure significant growth.

The APAC tea sector need to focus on functionality and format innovation and not just increasing blend varieties if it is to enjoy sustained growth, according to Sri Lanka and Europe-based tea specialist English Tea Shop.

Singapore-based plant-based products firm Thoughtful Food believes that the sector needs to look more closely at dry and ambient innovation as a key driver, particularly for brands seeking to solve ultra-processing challenges or go more clean label.

Affordability is emerging as the main driving factor for insect-based foods in the APAC region, possibly even more significant than its often-lauded protein or sustainability factors.

The cultivated meat industry in APAC needs to focus on localisation and realistic pricing strategies to avoid repeating past alternative protein ‘pitfalls’, says pioneer Aleph Farms.

Singapore-based Curated Culture has big plans to enter the ‘sports and wellness’ space in the APAC region with its probiotic tea products, which the firm has stressed is ‘not kombucha’.

Better-for-you beverage trends and ingredients are starting to see a convergence between markets in the Asia Pacific and United States as comsumer awareness grows, according to energy tea brand YATE.

Children are the ‘toughest food critics’ meaning that healthy snack firms have to pay equal attention to taste and nutrition if they are going to attract mass appeal and help improve the diets of young people.

Singaporean plant-based firm Vitality Foods is targeting the still-active seniors demographic in APAC with its all-natural, clean label products, believing it has found a gap in the industry that is as-yet underserved and full of unmet needs.

Plant-based brands in South East Asia need to step up their game by integrating unique health and localisation features to stand out in the increasingly crowded market, according to a Philippines brand blazing a trail in the sector.

The rise of new ingredients and innovations in the better-for-you confectionery space is shifting candies and other sweet treats into a guilt-free indulgence space, and has to the potential to progress further into the functional foods realm.

The interest in cleaner and better-for-you snacks shown by big food and beverage brands, including Mondelez, Nestle and Vitasoy, is paving the way for a new specialised area of plant-based proteins to enter the market, namely the RuBisCo leaf protein.

Ensuring that brand focus is maintained after joining a larger company is crucial to sustain and boost growth, according to sugar replacement start-up Swiftlet which has become part of Vietnamese conglomerate Senix Health Group.

Increased consumer demand for premiumisation and alternative protein products, as well as inflation-driven price hikes, are driving the need for technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) in traditional ‘commodities’ that have so far not been exposed to such advances.

Flavour localisation is a crucial strategy for healthy snacking brands to win over Asian consumers’ ‘sophisticated tastebuds’, according to Vietnam’s Lecka, which is rapidly expanding across the region.