fbpx

Nestle eyes growth from plant and alternative foods

— AFP pic

PETALING JAYA: Nestle is seeing strong uptake and acceptance of plant-based foods among consumers in general and is expecting this business segment to grow in the near future.

The food manufacturing company that’s headquartered in Switzerland said this trend towards new types of food such as alternative meat is a global one and is fast catching up in the South-East Asian region, including Malaysia.

“On alternative foods, we had recently launched the dairy-free range, including for Milo and Nescafe which has had a very good early response from consumers. And we had introduced Harvest Gourmet and there is great interest in these plant-based alternatives,” Nestle (M) Bhd’s chief executive officer (CEO) Juan Aranols (pic below) said at a virtual news conference yesterday.

“We see these (food) categories developing very quickly. We have the ability to reach consumers from our plants in Malaysia: especially the very large middle class. We are very excited about this development and the early signs are very positive,” he added.

The group yesterday announced that it had upgraded its research and development (R&D) facilities in Singapore and this also marked its 40th anniversary for the R&D centre.

Nestle’s executive vice-president and CEO, zone Asia, Oceania and Sub-Saharan Africa, Chris Johnson said while there were different rates of uptake for alternative plant-based food in different regions, this was generally a growing trend worldwide due to several reasons.

Nestle Juan Aranols
 Nestle (M) Bhd’s chief executive officer (CEO) Juan Aranols

“There are three reasons to this: health reasons since more consumers are aware of the benefits of a plant-based diet. Then there is sustainability: since it’s good for the environment and the planet. Thirdly, there is a rising interest in animal welfare: which is driving this move,” Johnson said.

Johnson explained that this trend was already very well established in countries such as the United States and Western Europe but there is a growing amount of interest in these type of food products. “This will continue to be and will grow into an important category for us moving forward,” he said.

He also said being able to cater to this new development in the industry is also in line with its environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals as a company.

“Alternative to meats also has a favourable impact on the carbon footprint, which is another commitment we have made as a group,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Nestle’s head of global product and technology development Thomas Hauser said there was also an initiative by the group to rethink manufacturing processes in an effort to reduce waste.

Food innovation: The Nestle R&D Centre in Singapore is one of the company’s largest R&D centres in Asia. It plays a key role in developing products regionally and globally, including for brands such as Milo.

“Some of the examples include sourcing sweeteners for chocolate wholly from cocoa. This means that sweetening is not done through adding sugar but through the usage of cocoa pulp which is abundant but goes to waste for the time being,” Hauser said.

Commenting on rising costs, Johnson said that this global trend had to be addressed by the group through different means.

“Clearly we are seeing some increase in raw material costs, packaging material costs and ocean freight costs: the pressures of input costs. This is a global matter, which will be addressed in different ways, depending on the category and market area we are competing in to allow us to continue to be competitive,” he said.

“This would allow us to continue to offer consumers the products they need at prices that they can afford,” Johnson added.






Source: The Star

Share:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Read more

Related Posts