Much of it based on emerging economies, of course, and in particular Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Meeting with Olivier Lecoeur, the new CEO of gourmet cordial producers Routin (based in the Alps), he sees the growth areas as mixology for hot drinks and cocktails, with Korea now its biggest customer, followed by China and Taiwan. It’s a long way from the early days of grenadine and mint, and the launch of the 1883 line, with now a fresh-tasting mandarin and speculoos (after the spicy Belgian biscuit) the new flavour contenders.
I then met with Jane Ozeri of Arran and talked about the growth of bag-in-box in France and Italy, for wine of course, but also now for olive oil, tomatoes and fruit purée for the service sector.
The CEO of Angola-based Refriango impressed me with the sheer scale of his operation, with the company producing nine million litres of Pura water a month, and 3-4 million litres of the sparkling drink Blue.
“Our goal is to create an affordable, low-price bottled water,” he explained. The company’s latest fruit juice drink is a chocolate fruit juice drink aimed at children.
Moving on to the global dairy company Emmi, which is the biggest exporter of Swiss Cheese, I heard from Robin Barraclough that with Caffe Latte, “it’s not about the milk, it’s about the brewed coffee”, with the popular macchiato and cappuccino being joined this year by Tahitian vanilla.
The company also owns the Onken yogurt business in the UK, with the most popular flavour not a standard but the rather more exotic mango, papaya and passion fruit.
Finally, I met with Germany’s largest dairy DMK and enjoyed its Sanobub line of ice creams, including Timmy, a sheep-shaped dairy lollipop.
Of course, there is always an impressive innovations section at Sial, including a pop-up bowl for Orville Redenbacher’s Popcorn, Cathedral City Cheds cheese and toasties, Fonterra’s Mammoth yogurts for men, Soshi desserts a la sushi, a chocolate coconut drink from Vita Coco, Guzzle Puzzle sweets and Jello Temptations for the vending sector.
And last, an agreed overall favourite, Selfish Trout from PRP Seafood of Hungary – a healthy meal packed in a vacuum bag ready to cook. And that’s just day one!
Claire Phoenix is managing editor of Beverage Innovation magazine.
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