“Vietnam has a young population who are interested in trying new things and they’re driving demand for new dining experiences and convenient foods that contain dairy.
“Fonterra’s focus is to grow our food service channel, especially our Anchor Food Professionals brand, already the number one brand in professional kitchens across the country.
“We supply about 3000 food and beverage establishments and we’re witnessing significant growth with Fonterra’s cheese exports to Vietnam, with exports growing 140 per cent over the last ten years.
“The Food Service Business over here is growing at a rate that we have never seen before.”
“That’s great to hear, so what is Fonterra doing to make the most of this increased appetite for dairy?“ Kelly asked.
“Traditionally, Vietnamese consumers didn’t use a lot of dairy, so we’re looking to infuse dairy into the local cuisine,” De Silva said.
“We’re promoting blending Anchor Cream with coconut milk, a staple in Vietnamese cuisine, to enhance dishes like curry or traditional desserts.
“We also are running an ‘add cheese’ campaign to showcase how cheese adds nutrition and taste to Vietnamese street food, while we also try to stay ahead of trends.
“For example, the bubble tea trend opened the window for us to drive dairy consumption in the beverage category as well.”
“Fonterra has application centres in China that help customers develop new and amazing ways to use dairy, do you have these kinds of demonstration kitchens in Vietnam?” Kelly asked.
“Yes, of course, Vietnam is a country with diverse cuisines,” De Silva said.
“We have four kitchens across the country, including one in our office in Ho Chi Minh and others through our distributor partners.
“We also conduct one-to-one sessions in our customers’ kitchens.
This allows us to co-create with our customers, exploring different applications of our products in both Vietnamese and Western cuisine.”
