ASEAN Focus: Nestle Malaysia, Thai Union, Yili and more feature in our round-up

‘More headwinds ahead’: Nestle Malaysia predicts difficult second half of the year despite leading ASEAN growth in H12022​

Nestle Malaysia believes that the rest of 2022 will be a tumultuous time for the food and beverage giant with supply chain and commodity costs continuing to rise, even after having pulled off a stellar performance by leading the ASEAN zone growth for the first half of the year.

Nestle recently announced its financial results for the first half of 2022, reporting an 8.1% rise in organic growth, 9.2% increase in total sales to CHF25.6bn (US$26.7bn) and 6.0% profit growth to CHF 7.7bn (US$8.03bn).

Within the APAC region and in particularly South East Asia, Malaysia was highlighted as the firm’s best performing market, leading ASEAN region growth across multiple well-known brands such as Maggi, KitKat and Nescafe as well as bringing in multiple other new brands.

‘Pressure to perform’: Thai Union on how it hopes to raise credibility of sustainability initiatives - Exclusive​

Seafood major Thai Union has taken the unprecedented step of partnering with NGO Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and opening up its entire supply chain for auditing under the body’s internationally recognized Seafood Metrics system, to boost the credibility of its sustainability initiatives.

Thai Union has placed a great deal of focus on developing its sustainability strategy Seachange, covering initiatives spanning climate change, food chain traceability, employee rights and more, with its efforts having earned it second place on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) last year.

One of the steps it has taken to do this has been to enter a partnership with SFP, which is an NGO world-renowned for its work in establishing sustainable seafood supply chains worldwide. It is also well-known for its Seafood Metrics system, a system that allows companies to more fully understand sustainability risks in their sources.

Chinese mega brand Yili to detail dairy’s crucial role in boosting healthy ageing in China and SEA – Growth Asia Summit​

The assistant president of Yili will be revealing how functional dairy can play a crucial role in boosting healthy ageing in China and South East Asia at our forthcoming Growth Asia Summit in Singapore.

The three day event will take place at the iconic Marina Bay Sands venue from 11-13 October.

Thai cannabis teething troubles: Authorities vow tough approach to food products amid THC concerns​

The Thai authorities have stressed that stringent control measures will be enforced as more food and beverage firm seeks to use cannabis-derived ingredients, amid claims that 30% of products contain higher than permitted tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels.

Thailand became the first country in South East Asia to formally legalise the use of cannabis for food-related purposes earlier this year. The Thai Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) announced that cannabis and hemp would be delisted from the Category 5 list of narcotics in the Royal Gazette as controlled substances, legalising the planting, importing, consumption and also usage of these for use in food products, as long as the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content does not exceed 0.2%.

“The use and distribution of cannabis and hemp will however still be stringently monitored and controlled – we do not intend for these items, particularly if the THC content is over 0.2%, to be used too freely, particularly for recreational purposes,”​ MOPH said via a press statement.

‘Anything dairy can do, we can do too’: Could sesame milk be Asia’s mainstream milk alternative?​

Sesame’s nutritional and sustainable properties could make it Asia’s best option for traditional milk replacement, despite it being a relative newcomer in region’s plant-based dairy alternative space, claims a Thai firm seeking to pioneer the sector.

Thailand-based Sesamilk has its roots in the sesame seed hulling and processing sector, with CEO Siripen Suntornmonkongsri moving to develop the potential of sesame seeds as an FMCG ready-to-drink beverage product together with R&D backing from Bangkok’s King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang.

The firm has developed sesame milk variants from both white and black sesame seeds, and at this stage Suntornmonkongsri is now confident that these products can replace conventional dairy milk in most everyday applications.