1:22 AM | 0
comments
Morning Focus: Flooding
Written By My First Web Blog on Wednesday, August 10, 2011 | 1:22 AM
Labels:
News
Currying flavour The home-cooked taste of Rozsiam's popular food products is winning new followers among Thai restaurants the world over.
Written By My First Web Blog on Monday, August 8, 2011 | 6:36 PM
t all started in the family kitchen. The cooking skills of mother Pareerath Maithai, notably her curries and phad thai, were highly regarded by friends and family alike, all of whom would regularly stop by her house to eat.
But her tasty meals were not sold commercially until some family members decided it would be better to share her special recipes with the public as a way of preserving the home-cooked taste.
"We were also inspired by the government's 'Kitchen of the World' programme," said Prakasit Chandrubeksa, a director of what soon became Rozsiam Co.
Mr Prakasit, who previously worked for The Mall Group, said Rozsiam was established in 2003 with the goal of creating home-made recipes using advanced production techniques.
Retort pouch technology and sterilisation via a water spray retort system ensure high standards of sanitation, freshness and flavour.
Rozsiam's first three products - instant phad thai noodles, sweet fish sauce and chili sauce - were targeted at "new lifestyle" consumers unaccustomed to using them in cooking.
More items including a variety of cooked curry pastes were soon added with an eye to export markets.
"Participating in several food exhibitions offered good opportunities to expand internationally," said marketing director Sarawuth Singhararach.
He especially credited the Thai Food Exhibition, an annual international fair organised by the Department of Export Promotion, with helping local operators to establish a presence abroad, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
With purchase orders from abroad rising, Rozsiam soon increased its capital to 3 million baht from an initial one million.
Customers today include food service operators, especially Thai food restaurants, that use cooked curry paste to cut down on food preparation time.
Lacking this item means cooks must waste time making raw paste from scratch, having to prepare all of the fresh ingredients themselves - chili paste, red onions, galangal, Chinese ginger, kaffir lime leaves, garlic and coriander root.
Pounding all of this with a mortar and pestle is the traditional way to prepare curry paste, whose varieties include green, red and massaman.
The raw paste must be cooked well before adding coconut milk.
"Using cooked curry paste helps you bypass this time-consuming process. You simply add coconut milk or fresh milk and meat to get a ready-to-eat curry," said Mr Prakasit.
As well, Rozsiam's sterilisation process makes for better hygiene than for raw pastes sold in wet markets.
The company also offers ready-to-eat meals such as chicken stew, tom yum, green chicken curry and Penang curry.
Mr Sarawuth said the growing popularity of massaman curry, ranked No. 1 on a recent list of the world's 50 tastiest foods by CNNGo.com, is helping the company's export outlook.
The curry, of Persian origin, is rich in flavour with a thick broth that contains beef or chicken and - especially in the South - potatoes.
International sales account for 60% of Rozsiam's annual revenue of less than 10 million baht.
Hong Kong, China, Japan, Europe and Canada are the company's main markets.
Products are sold under the Rozsiam label as well as other brands in accordance with original-equipment manufacture contracts.Foreigners are big customers, as the flavour can be adjusted to meet their tastes, said Mr Prakasit.
"Our factory is still small, so it's easy to change the ingredients to make the food less spicy without hurting the taste," he said.
More importantly, the selling price of 19-20 baht for enough cooked paste to make four servings of curry is very competitive, as is the 49-55 baht that a pack of ready-to-eat food products goes for, said Mr Prakasit.
National Food Institute data show Thailand's exports of seasoning products including cooked curry paste has increased in line with the growing popularity of Thai restaurants abroad.
A total of 221,594 tonnes of seasoning products valued at 13.8 billion baht were exported to 146 countries in 2009, up by 9% and 18%, respectively, from 2008.
Of the segment, curry paste has shown substantial growth, fetching more than 1.2 billion baht in export revenue.
Chili sauce and fish sauce are two main seasoning products that enjoy especially strong demand from Thai food operators abroad, each one generating more than a billion baht in export revenue.
"We were also inspired by the government's 'Kitchen of the World' programme," said Prakasit Chandrubeksa, a director of what soon became Rozsiam Co.
Mr Prakasit, who previously worked for The Mall Group, said Rozsiam was established in 2003 with the goal of creating home-made recipes using advanced production techniques.
Retort pouch technology and sterilisation via a water spray retort system ensure high standards of sanitation, freshness and flavour.
Rozsiam's first three products - instant phad thai noodles, sweet fish sauce and chili sauce - were targeted at "new lifestyle" consumers unaccustomed to using them in cooking.
More items including a variety of cooked curry pastes were soon added with an eye to export markets.
"Participating in several food exhibitions offered good opportunities to expand internationally," said marketing director Sarawuth Singhararach.
With purchase orders from abroad rising, Rozsiam soon increased its capital to 3 million baht from an initial one million.
Customers today include food service operators, especially Thai food restaurants, that use cooked curry paste to cut down on food preparation time.
Lacking this item means cooks must waste time making raw paste from scratch, having to prepare all of the fresh ingredients themselves - chili paste, red onions, galangal, Chinese ginger, kaffir lime leaves, garlic and coriander root.
Pounding all of this with a mortar and pestle is the traditional way to prepare curry paste, whose varieties include green, red and massaman.
The raw paste must be cooked well before adding coconut milk.
"Using cooked curry paste helps you bypass this time-consuming process. You simply add coconut milk or fresh milk and meat to get a ready-to-eat curry," said Mr Prakasit.
As well, Rozsiam's sterilisation process makes for better hygiene than for raw pastes sold in wet markets.
The company also offers ready-to-eat meals such as chicken stew, tom yum, green chicken curry and Penang curry.
Mr Sarawuth said the growing popularity of massaman curry, ranked No. 1 on a recent list of the world's 50 tastiest foods by CNNGo.com, is helping the company's export outlook.
The curry, of Persian origin, is rich in flavour with a thick broth that contains beef or chicken and - especially in the South - potatoes.
International sales account for 60% of Rozsiam's annual revenue of less than 10 million baht.
Hong Kong, China, Japan, Europe and Canada are the company's main markets.
Products are sold under the Rozsiam label as well as other brands in accordance with original-equipment manufacture contracts.Foreigners are big customers, as the flavour can be adjusted to meet their tastes, said Mr Prakasit.
"Our factory is still small, so it's easy to change the ingredients to make the food less spicy without hurting the taste," he said.
More importantly, the selling price of 19-20 baht for enough cooked paste to make four servings of curry is very competitive, as is the 49-55 baht that a pack of ready-to-eat food products goes for, said Mr Prakasit.
National Food Institute data show Thailand's exports of seasoning products including cooked curry paste has increased in line with the growing popularity of Thai restaurants abroad.
A total of 221,594 tonnes of seasoning products valued at 13.8 billion baht were exported to 146 countries in 2009, up by 9% and 18%, respectively, from 2008.
Of the segment, curry paste has shown substantial growth, fetching more than 1.2 billion baht in export revenue.
Chili sauce and fish sauce are two main seasoning products that enjoy especially strong demand from Thai food operators abroad, each one generating more than a billion baht in export revenue.
6:36 PM | 0
comments
Labels:
News
SET dips as US troubles deepen Historic downgrade rattles Asian markets
Thai stocks closed 1.39% lower yesterday in volatile trade as most Asian markets tumbled in the wake of last week's historic ratings downgrade of the United States.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand index dropped 20 points at the opening, and slid by as much as 30 points to a low of 1,061.69 at the end of the morning session before bargain-hunting helped curb losses.
The SET index closed at 1,078.19, down 15.19, in trade worth 41 billion baht. Losers outpaced gainers 134 to 373, with 97 shares unchanged. Energy stocks led the sell-off, closing down 1.26%, banks dropped 0.91% and information and communications technology shares dropped 1.67%.
6:32 PM | 0
comments
Labels:
BUSINESS
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
