Key Takeaways from the APAC F&B Innovation Summit 2021

“For players in food and agriculture, technology adoption is no longer an option. It's a must. But to solve the challenges ahead, we need startups, investors, corporates, and food brands to work together.” Agnes Wang, the co-founder and managing partner of Foodland Ventures said while opening the APAC F&B Innovation Summit 2021. With 27 global speakers and online participants joining, top founders and executives from the field shared their views on how the food industry is solving critical challenges with innovations.

Here are some of the highlights and key takeaways from the 7 panel discussions at the summit.

*You can watch the event playback here.

#1 Asia’s Alt Protein Funding Gaining Momentum

Alternative Protein has been one of the hottest sub-sectors in food tech; However, funding has more traditionally been focused on the western markets due to higher market acceptance and R&D capacity in the region. With Hong Kong and Singapore spearheading the growth in Asia, investors are coming on-board - pushing Asia to be the next hub for plant-based and cultivated meats. 

On the panel discussion with Impossible Foods, Green Queen and Ooh Cha Cha, Dr. Sandhya Sriram of Shiok Meats, co-founder and CEO of the cultivated meats and seafood company recalled during the summit : “We started in August 2018, and for the first six months of running Shiok, I still remember when we pitched to the US investors, they questioned - Why are you in Singapore? Why aren’t you in the US?  [ … ] After the “30 by 30 Mandate” (30% of nutritional needs met locally by 2030), those same investors came around.” 

#2 Community Matters in Upstream Digital Transformation 

Digital transformation in the lower stream of the supply chain has been led by e-commerce giants and a growing tech-savvy customer base. While end-consumers are doing their grocery online more than ever, stakeholders in upstream production often lack understanding of digital tools. “What we’ve learned is that, if you leave farmers, fishermen, and mom-and-pop stores with the tools, they will not do it. They understand B2C platforms like Lazada or Shopee, but they don’t use it. They fear how it will impact their business. They’d rather focus on what they do know.” Said Dropee’s CEO Lennise Ng. 

To help farmers and fishermen on-board their digitalized B2B platform during Covid, Dropee decided to use the power of community and grew a network of “local activators” - consultants situated in local areas, and work face-to-face, hand-in-hand with these farmers and fishermen to help stores to place orders or sell on the platform. 

#3 Automation in F&B - Scalability Lives on Durability 

With strong inflation in place, the rise in labor cost and real estate prices are driving interest for automation in the US and first-tier markets in Asia. But what are international F&B brands looking for when it comes to automated technologies? Steven D. Yang, SVP & Managing Director Asia of Focus Brands might just have the answer. “We rolled out Blendid in the US - our automated robotic kiosks in the US as a test to see how they perform. [ … ] If we’re going to roll it out across the world, we can’t have a machine that breaks down every 3 months.” To echo his point, Sean Hsu of Botrista also reiterated the importance of the ease of maintenance as one of the key features of their automated drinkbots. “We invest a lot of time to figure out how we could make the user (staff or technician) use this machine (easily) when it’s out.” 

#4 Big Corporates are Innovating - with the help of M&A 

“We have acquired 3 F&B related solution providers in the past 3 years, including front, mid and back end of restaurant tech solutions to integrate our services into better user experience.” Said Sean Fu - SVP Greater China of Global Payments.

One of the unique things we see in food related tech is the tightly interlocked vertical, pushing the need for integration and opens up possibilities for startup exits through acquisitions. As the need for innovation grows with drastic consumer behavioral changes, the importance of bridging the innovation with market applications becomes critical. 

#5 Asian SaaS Providers Eyeing the Global Market 

“Compared to US or European counterparts, where the ASP (average selling price) of a POS solution is US$ 70 - 200 / per month, Asia-based companies offer the same solution at US$70 - 200 / per year.” said Steve Tsai, CEO of Kabob Cloud. With their primary market in China, they have gained competitive advantage in price (as the Chinese market is still in a competitive state), diversity of functions and scalability (because of the huge market size). Potentials for global expansion lie in their global clientele - If the brand you provide your service to has a global presence, you have the potential to expand with your clients into overseas markets. 

#6 Hyper-local Trends Fueling Growth in Vertical Farming

While speaking with Farm8’s Yong Joo Park on the panel discussion about vertical farming, the CEO & President of Unfold - John Purcell pointed out that consumers’ desire for “connectivity with food'' is driving up vertical farming globally : “The trend toward hyper-local, the trend towards reducing inputs, the trends toward people trying to make a connect with where their food comes from, [ … ] I think that connectivity with what we’re eating is true in many parts of the world.”

With vertical farming or urban farming essentially shortening the gap from farm to table, consumers are able to understand more about what they put in their mouths. This trend is evident in Farm8’s approach in showing South Korean consumers where the produce they consume comes from - by setting up indoor farms in Seoul’s metro stations. They would be able to see that in the controlled environment, the produce could be free from air pollution and micro-dusts. However, energy and operational efficiency are some of the obstacles ahead in the full commercialization of many vertical farming facilities and startups.

#7 Cloud Kitchens are Bound to Grow Further Post-Pandemic

While some might believe that the cloud kitchen models have benefited from dine-in restrictions during the pandemic as conventional restaurants suffer, Mario Suntanu of Yummy Corp thinks that further growth is to be expected in delivery and cloud kitchens. “[ … ] I would argue that the whole delivery ecosystem would have grown faster without the pandemic.” said Mario during the discussion with Just Kitchen, Pop Meals, Dailybox and 3 SQUARE. Most of the migration of dine-in went to people eating (cooking) at home, instead of going to delivery which was already prospering and growing fast. 

As the world slowly tries to open back up (even under waves of new variants) and more people head back into offices, cloud kitchen operators are optimistic about the further growth in the sector. 

Main Takeaway - Innovations are Born Out of Cooperation

While the panel discussion topics range from upstream to downstream of the food supply chain challenges, there’s one universal theme we see throughout the 7 panel discussions - cooperation and conversation. Whether it’s Oisix leveraging their partnership with Purple Carrot to bring Japanese cooking to the US, alternative protein producers like Impossible Foods and Shiok Meats making an impact with media outlets like Green Queen, or Dailybox scaling fast with cloud kitchen partners including Yummy Corp, it is evident that platforms that enable conversations need to be created and utilized to drive collective growth in the industry. 

*The APAC F&B Innovation Summit was held on the 25th of November by Foodland Ventures. You can watch the event playback here.