Asia a hot target for countries exporting premium agri-food products

A significant number of governmental or public sector market development organizations approaching AMA from western European countries, North America and Oceania are from the food and beverage (F&B) sector. And within F&B, these inquiries tend to be concentrated around olive oil and olive extract producers, dairy products, meat products, seafood and fisheries, and of course wine. Over the last dozen years or so, AMA has helped many F&B clients find their footing across Asia in markets ranging from South East Asia (notably Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam) to North Asia (Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan) to South Asia (India).

Large Asian food companies almost a decade ago realized the potential of having healthier cooking oils such as olive oil in their product portfolio and started importing in bulk from countries such as Italy and Spain which is then labeled and marketed under a local brand. Therefore, the larger European firms have made significant inroads into the private label market in Asia. The real opportunity though has been in the more exclusive premium products segments where boutique brands from Europe and North America tend to have much better traction especially when dealing with gourmet restaurants and high-end F&D retail space in Asia.

The Asian cosmetics industry continues to boom and growth rates will continue to be consistently high for the foreseeable future, and there is growing demand for cosmetics containing more “natural ingredients and extracts”

A similar trend of high-end products finding better shelf space is also seen with dairy and meat products from North America, Australia and New Zealand. Another interesting market which is less spoken about but has been witnessing tremendous demand in Asia are byproducts such as olive extracts or other agri-food extracts that find its way into cosmetics manufacturing. As is very well known, the Asian cosmetics industry continues to boom and growth rates will continue to be consistently high for the foreseeable future, and there is growing demand for cosmetics containing more “natural ingredients and extracts”. Therefore agri-food byproducts that can be supplied in bulk to cosmetics makers in Asia seem to be in great demand, especially in markets such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan and India.