ASEAN clients’ confidence in regional industrial relations with the European Union plummeted early last year due to the latter’s deforestation law and its effects on various food products, as the region’s major palm oil-producing countries officially protested on the global stage.
The European Parliament passed its much-discussed and debated regulations on deforestation in September last year, despite widespread protests from countries that generate various food products in regions from Asia to South America.
They claimed the move was a political ploy and experts warned that it would likely lead to additional price increases amid inflationary pressures.
This has led major palm oil-generating markets, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, to consider retaliation and discuss with the EU a possible cessation of the palm oil industry.
Nestlé’s strategy of focusing on product affordability and accessibility paid off in 2022, with the company reporting further expansion of its business in emerging markets, even amid economic turbulence and inflation.
Nestlé released its monetary effects for fiscal 2022 on February 16, 2023, announcing an overall year-on-year expansion of biologics sales of 8. 3% to CHF 94. 4 billion ($136. 5 billion) and a 16% increase in operating profit to CHF 16. 1 billion ($23. 3 billion). billion), profit margins would have fallen across 30 foundation issues (0. 3%) to 17. 1% in total.
Nestlé’s emerging markets account for 42% of its business (the remaining 58% are evolved markets), demonstrating once again the strength of this segment. Many of those emerging markets are in the Asian region, from giant countries like India to many smaller but faster ones. -Growing markets in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam.
Many Southeast Asian countries have remained cautious and concerned about a lack of confidence in food and emerging inflationary costs, despite the meteoric post-COVID-19 expansion in several food categories.
The ASEAN food and beverage sector experienced ups and downs at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with sectors such as alcohol affected in some markets, such as Malaysia, and others, such as snacks and canned goods, They experienced a monumental expansion amid the accumulation. of customers’ stocks and transfer to dining or cooking more at home.
Since the last quarter of 2022, sales trends across all food and beverage categories have normalized, but industry experts have remained cautious in 2023.
Global food giant Kraft Heinz said its investment in improved facilities and new sustainability commitments reaffirmed its commitment to the Indonesian market, while revealing it was exploring opportunities in the realm of meat substitutes.
The firm’s largest production facility in the Asian region is located in Indonesia, mostly focused on the production of its ABC branded products which are a leader in terms of market share in the country.
Kraft Heinz invested a total of IDR 1. 2 billion ($84 million) in capital investments to improve this site, installing upgraded treatment equipment, solar power, and wastewater control systems.
“This breakthrough is expected to turn the ABC Indonesia Karawang plant into a world-class plant and is a vital milestone for us here in Indonesia as we pave the way for our long-term expansion in Indonesia,” Kraft Heinz Indonesia-Papua News Guinea General manager, Steven Debrabandere, told FoodNavigator-Asia.
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health (KKM) issued a statement in 2023 calling on the public to update local legislation governing food protection and dairy quality in the country, raising considerations about fraudulent or unsafe products slipping through the cracks.
The existing law regulating these products is the Food Regulations 1985, and the scope of dairy products that KKM sought to control included skimmed milk, skimmed milk, pasteurized milk, recombined milk, reconstituted milk, etc.
“KKM is seeking public input to update those regulations in the face of potential health hazards and prevent fraudulent manipulation of the preparation, sale or use of those foods and beverages,” KKM said in an official statement.
Nestlé Malaysia is under pressure that constant innovation of new products would help it fight the current challenging global economic situations and emerging food commodity prices.
The Nestlé Group in total announced its first-quarter 2023 currency effects in April 2023, reporting a 5. 6% increase in global sales through the fourth quarter of 2022 to 23. 5 billion Swiss francs (US$26. 4 billion), but did not disclose any profits. figures in this report apart from the expected earnings. The margin in 2023 will be between 17% and 17. 5%.
This highlighted an overall value increase of 9. 8%, attributed to significant and ongoing price inflation. For the APAC region, it is 9. 1% in the Asia, Oceania and Africa (AOA) area and 3. 9% in the Greater China area.
Asia was not the worst hit by price hikes when compared to Latin America (13.4% increase), North America (12.4% increase), and Europe (10.7% increase), but in a market where price sensitivity is particularly high such as Malaysia, the impacts are always likely to be more enhanced.
A study conducted by Singaporean researchers on the government’s Nutri-Grade front-of-package (FOP) beverage labelling scheme in 2023 has concluded that more work needs to be done for it to make a positive impact on consumer dietary and purchasing choices.
Singapore first announced the Nutri-Grade labeling formula for pre-packaged sugary drinks in 2020, and after all, it was officially rolled out in the country in December 2022 after several delays attributed to COVID-19.
It ranks beverages from A (healthiest) to D (least healthy) in terms of sugar and saturated fat levels.
Researchers at Duke-NUS School of Medicine conducted a randomized trial with 138 participants to read about the effects of implementing Nutri-Grade on consumers’ purchasing choices, an experimental online grocery platform NUSMart in collaboration with local grocery store FairPrice.
They found that although the FOP labelling system did help to encourage consumers to choose beverages with higher ratings, this was not quite so clear in terms of helping them to improve health and dietary choices.
In 2023, Vietnam put into effect regulations requiring the demonstration of nutrition labeling in accordance with national criteria on all eligible food and beverage products in the country, moving forward from its previous voluntary labeling system.
According to government data, in the past only 60% of the country’s food companies displayed nutrition labels on their products. Most of them were major brands and retailers.
“A study by the Ministry of Health Department of Preventive Medicine has shown that overall 60% of products have nutritional information provided – it also found that 82% of non-alcoholic beverages are attaching labels, but just 50% of processed packaged foods are doing this,” Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Thuyen said via a formal statement.
Thailand has proposed to revamp its rules around expiration dates and allergen warnings, with regulator Thai Food and Drug Association (FDA) having issued draft proposals for prepackaged foods
Following in the footsteps of several other Asian countries, from Vietnam to South Korea, Thailand’s food regulator has embarked on a change to its labeling regulations to align them with foreign standards.
The Thai FDA’s primary goal with this update is to replace the control of requirements related to how expiration dates and allergen warnings are displayed on packaging.
“One major change that has been proposed in this draft is much deeper clarity regarding how allergen warnings need to be displayed and what ingredients need to carry such warnings,” the agency stated via a formal statement.
The Food Agency of Singapore (SFA) granted a first regulatory approval to GOOD Meat for the use of whey-free media in cultured meat production in 2023.
The company claims that this technical and regulatory step would lead to greater scalability of production power, a decrease in production costs and a more sustainable product.
It also paved the way for the production of larger quantities of free-range chickens from cells than from slaughtered animals.
GOOD Meat won SFA approval for its first poultry product in November 2020 and then approval for new formats in November 2021. With the most recent regulatory approval for serum-free culture media, the U. S. food generation company announces that it will soon transition to a more effective culture medium. and favorable production process.