Thomas Bauer, head of strategic advisory and research for South-east Asia, shares in an exclusive interview with AFJ where the niches lie in Asia’s food production and Rabobank’s activities in these markets.
Thailand The food giant holds steadfast in its traditional areas of advantage.
• Beverages: Particularly in fruit and vegetable juices. • Rice: The no.1 exporter is a key player in world trade. • Packaging and processing: Keeping costs low and packaging products right.
Vietnam South-east Asia’s hottest market shows it’s serious about food.
• Seafood: Catfi sh and shrimp are big ticket export items, but pollution and disease problems need to be constantly tackled.
• Pork production: A variety of local pig breeds lends much growth potential to this sector.
• Track records: Environmental practices and food safety standards are generally on the right track.
Indonesia The recent acquisition of Hagabank and Bank Hagakita has helped Rabobank extend its lending facilities to local farmers more efficiently. While views of the country’s agri-sector are largely positive, concepts of the cold chain are still lacking there.
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Unilever has announced it intends to appoint Paul Polman, 52, as group chief executive. He will succeed Patrick Cescau, who retires at the end of the year.
Germany's METRO Group is making plans to open its first Metro Cash & Carry wholesale store in Kazakhstan in the summer of 2009. The Group officially agreed to the investment with the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Wednesday, a move which will extend METRO's activities to 33 countries.
Trent Ltd, the retail arm of the Tata group in India, is likely to invest around Rs 20billion ( €0.3 billion ) over the next five years in the roll out of 50 Star Bazaar hypermarket stores, according to Indian press reports.
The recent credit crunch has led all the major supermarket chains in the UK to increase promotions of cheap, unhealthy food, according to the country's National Consuner Council (NCC).
Auchan has published half year results for the first time as a result of new European regulations governing transparency. Although there has been a slow-down in mature markets, emerging markets remained buoyant for the French company and as a result sales for the first six months of 2008 were 9.4% higher than in 2007 reaching EUR18.7 billion.
Price promotions and the decision to only partially pass on food price inflation to customers have led to a downturn in second quarter margins for Ahold. Net sales for second quarter 2008 were EUR 5.8 billion, down 0.8% from the same period last year. At constant exchange rates, net sales increased by 7.3%.
