“Our food service brand, Anchor Food Professionals, supplies over 50,000 food operators across Southeast Asia, with our customers ranging from bakeries and restaurants to small local street food stalls.
“Bakery, beverages and desserts are among the fastest growing food service channels in Southeast Asia, driving demand for Anchor Food Professionals’ products such as butter sheet for pastries, cream and cream cheese for drinks as well as desserts.”
Lunar New Year, one of the biggest festivals for many countries in Asia, kicks off tomorrow.
Kelly asked, “Is anything interesting happening in your market regarding the New Year?”
“Yes, tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year, welcoming the year of the snake,” Tan said.
“The Lunar New Year is an important holiday for people in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam and it is a time of family reunions with wishes of prosperity and good fortune.”
He said that during the Lunar New Year, visiting family and friends’ homes was very common, and all across Southeast Asia, you didn’t go empty-handed.
One way people celebrate is by gifting food and enjoying special dishes with their families and friends.
Tan said butter exports to Vietnam jumped significantly in this period, driven by bakery customers who produced cookies and other desserts for the Lunar New Year gift sets.
Anchor Food Professionals team in Malaysia also work with customers to develop special dishes for the new year.
For example, pineapple is a popular ingredient for the Lunar New Year as it is associated with good luck and prosperity, so the team at Fonterra team developed applications like pineapple cheesecake tart that uses Fonterra’s cream and butter.
Other Western-style dishes with an Asian flavour twist like cheesy dumplings or Mapo tofu lasagna are also on the menu this year.
Kelly said it sounded quite different from how Kiwis enjoy cheese.
Tan said dairy ingredients were not traditionally used in Asian cuisines but the growing appetite for fusion Western-style dishes in Southeast Asia supported demand for dairy ingredients like cheese, butter, and cream.
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Fonterra’s focus is also on bringing New Zealand dairy to everyday staples and increasing its participation in the local diet.
An example of this is the Portuguese egg tart, a popular dish in Malaysia that some restaurants now make with Fonterra’s Anchor Whipping Cream.
About 5000 egg tarts are made with Anchor Whipping Cream which are sold every day by one of their customers in Malaysia, Tan said.
