Drink your nutrients: Tipco highlights vegetable juices and herb-infused drinks as trending beverage options

06-Jul-2022 - Last updated on 06-Jul-2022 at 03:37 GMT

Thai juice giant Tipco believes that consumers are turning to beverages as a tasty yet convenient means of ‘drinking’ in additional nutrients. ©Tipco

Thai juice giant Tipco believes that consumers are turning to beverages as a tasty yet convenient means of ‘drinking’ in additional nutrients, leading to a rise in popularity of items such as vegetable juices and herb-infused drinks.

Tipco is best-known for its not-from-concentrate (NFC) juices with multinational presence across multiple markets particularly Thailand, China, the Philippines, South Korea and Australia, as well as several other South East Asian and Middle Eastern markets.

Based on its broad market knowledge, the firm has observed that consumers are trending towards more functional beverage products, which enable them to simultaneously consume their nutrients whilst quenching their thirst.

“We’ve seen a definite rise in popularity of products such as vegetable juices – our ABC (apples, beetroots, carrots) has been doing well, and we also have other mixed veggie products including ones with beetroot or pumpkin or tomato as a base, all of which we are seeing to trend a lot more than previously,” Tipco Export Manager Preecha Chaicharncheep told FoodNavigator-Asia.

“I think what a lot of consumers here are thinking is that if they don’t eat as much vegetables yet are now more worried about their health and want to get the vitamins and other benefits, drinking vegetable juices is a good way to do that, to drink their nutrients, which is what has helping these products to become trending.

“This is especially obvious in markets like South Korea, where we have a green kale juice product as part of our Tipco Everyday range, which is mixed with other fruit juices but is still pretty green, and it is our number one top seller in that market.”

Similarly, the firm has also recently launched a new range of herb-infused drinks locally in Thailand as there has been a rise in consumers looking for functional options. This range currently comprises two products: one curcumin-infused, and one finger root (galangal)-infused.

“We’ve added orange juice to the curcumin one and honey lemon juice to the finger root one so the taste is still good and appealing to consumers, but they now can get the added benefits too,” Chaicharncheep said.

“In the curcumin product, there is amino acid L-ornithine (which plays an important role in the body’s urea cycle to remove ammonia waste as well as aids cell repair) and curcumin prevents this from being broken down too quickly, whereas the finger root drink is high in antioxidants and is also good for the stomach.

“Both products are also high in vitamin C – but this is already very common for juices and really should be thought of as a norm – which is why we have worked to provide even better products with even more health benefits now.”

Also importantly, he stressed that consumers today are being very careful about their sugar intake for health reasons, which has driven Tipco to mandate all its juices to be made with no added sugar.

“Consumers today are fearful of seeing or tasting too much sugar in whatever they eat or drink, and we know this so we have formulated our products such that they are able to consume these directly without fear,” he said.

Local citrus ruling the roost

But in terms of product popularity, the firm’s current best-seller remains is original orange juice – though for Tipco, even the humble orange juice can mean many things.

“Our most popular range is still our 100% orange juice line, and by this I am referring to orange juices made with local Thai orange species – we do have orange juice made with Valencia or mandarin oranges, but those are not what I am referring to here,” said Chaicharncheep.

“We have several varieties of local orange juices, squeezed from either local tangerines, local Sai Nam Phueng oranges, local Shokhun oranges, or local Sithong oranges, which have no added sugar and also no added flavours, colours or preservatives, as these are packed with an aseptic system.

“Moving forward, we are already in 35 countries but we believe that there are still more markets we can enter and expand in, and we hope to appeal to as many types of consumers as possible by widening our product ranges as much as we can, by keeping up with trends to make items such as the ABC juice and the herb-infused drinks.”