BANGKOK: A Thai processed-fruit brand has found a powerful opening in China by turning what many Thais see as an everyday snack into a product Chinese consumers associate with health and longevity.
“Thai people see preserved plum as a snack, but Chinese people see it as something that supports good health and a long life,” said Nontakoch Panyapat, managing director of Waydhanar Co Ltd, the owner of Mag Mag and producer of Buay Kuen Cheep, or “revival plum”.
The business journey behind the brand has taken more than 19 years, growing from a small interest in Thai sweets and processed fruit into one of the Thai plum brands to have successfully entered the Chinese market.
Nontakoch did not begin his career in food. His family originally ran a business renting out film production equipment, including cameras, lighting and other production tools.
That background led him to study advertising at the Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University, with the intention of eventually returning to the family business.
What began as supplementary income gradually became a more serious venture.
After discussing the idea with his family, he improved the shopfront, developed the product and expanded distribution channels.
From sago with young coconut, the business moved into dried fruit, processed fruit and a wider range of snacks. One of those products was preserved plum.
Nontakoch said Thai plum has roots in highland development projects initiated under the royal guidance of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great, which encouraged highland farmers to grow plums as an economic crop and an alternative source of income to shifting cultivation.
That development created an important raw-material supply chain that remains significant today.
Most of the plums used by the company come from Chiang Rai, where the crop is grown in areas closer to managed plum forests than industrial plantations.
The trees rely heavily on weather and natural conditions, with little use of chemicals.
Nontakoch said the decision to look overseas, especially to China, came from seeing a clear market opportunity.
China is a large market where consumers are already familiar with plum.
Unlike some other Thai fruits, which require more explanation before foreign consumers understand them, plums have been part of Chinese culture and everyday life for thousands of years.
“If we want to take Thai products overseas, we have to choose something they already know,” Nontakoch said.
The company now sends more than 90% of its products to China across all distribution channels.
The brand has gradually worked its way into the Chinese market, where Thai fruit is widely viewed as high-quality, good-tasting and well accepted.
“Today, we are one of the leaders in the Thai plum market in China. When people talk about Thai plum in China, many think of our brand among the first names,” he said.
Plum is also distinctive as a crop. Nontakoch described it as almost a “forest managed by people”, with cultivation that uses very few chemicals and depends mainly on natural weather conditions. — The Nation/ANN
