A small team for DKSH’s Business Unit Performance Materials, the company’s speciality materials and food ingredients arm, will develop concepts and formulation ideas for bakers and confectioners targeted to the needs of the market in Taiwan.
Asia not a single entity
DKSH communications manager Leng Stricker told ConfectioneryNews.com that DKSH had opened the centre in Taipei exclusively for customers on the Taiwanese market.
“In the US and Europe, people tend to view Asia as one united entity, but that isn’t the case.”
“Each country in Asia has its own unique culture, language, and also food preferences,” she said.
She gave the example of a preference for spicier foods in Thailand that would not necessarily appeal to the Chinese palette.
Healthy and premium products
Stricker said the innovation centre in Taiwan was geared toward market trends in the country.
“With the rising middle class in Asia, there is growing demand for premium and healthier products, which generates naturally the demand for innovative ingredients in Taiwan,” she said.
Other flavour houses
DKSH also has innovation centres for bakery and confectionery ingredients in Thailand and Japan and is planning to open another in India in the near future to cater for taste preference in each of these countries.
Asked if the opening of innovation centres in Asia meant sales growth for the region was outstripping growth in other regions, Stricker said there was no clear trend and demand was growing steadily in all regions.
The Swiss company DKSH has 650 business locations in 35 countries – 630 of these are in Asia.
Its food ingredients business is part of its Business Unit Performance Materials which has around 1,000 employees and is based in 26 countries. In 2011, the business generated net sales of €579.8m (CHF 697m).