Welcome

Welcome to the third issue of the USAPEEC ASEAN Regional Office.

This newsletter seeks to provide our readers with useful product and market information for institutional and consumer users of U.S. poultry. Readers will find in every issue a variety of general market information, program activities, as well as useful product information.

This month, we take a look at several market perspectives in the individual ASEAN countries.

Contents:

• Culinary International Competition held in conjunction with Myanmar Food & Hotel Show 2014
• Food safety and poultry preparation seminar at Hoa Sen University, Vietnam
• Growing consumer interest in U.S. turkey and duck in the Philippine provinces
• Keen interest shown by Myanmar food trade
• Restaurants adopt manpower-saving techniques to combat shortage of staff

Additional Market Information Available

We have updated our website to include more information on market reports and export documentation guidelines.

You can visit our ASEAN website at: www.usapeecasean.com

Culinary International Competition held in conjunction with Myanmar Food & Hotel Show 2014

The Myanmar food service industry is rapidly expanding with the increased presence of international fast food chains and restaurants.

Chefs and food service staff in the country were keen to display their culinary skills at the first opportunity.

The Myanmar International Culinary Competition, held in conjunction with the Food & Hotel Show 2014, attracted over 150 participating chefs. Mr. U Htay Aung, Union Minister for Tourism, graced the event.

The AHRA-ASEAN Bartenders’ Competition 2014 was also held at the event.

The culinary competitions provided the opportunity for USAPEEC staff to meet with some of the leading chefs and food service staff in the ASEAN region.

Participating chefs at Myanmar International Culinary Competition.

Food safety and poultry preparation seminar at Hoa Sen University, Vietnam

Chef Norbert Ehrbar conducted a two-part seminar on 13 June, 2014 at the Hoa Sen University. The seminar covered health and nutrition aspects of U.S. poultry as well as information on proper deboning and cutting techniques. The seminar featured hands-on demonstration of the preparation of various poultry dishes. 37 students from the Hotel Management faculty participated at this seminar.

USAPEEC sponsored the seminar as part of a series to be conducted by Chef Norbert Ehrbar.

Hoa Sen University is an established education centre with a well-respected hospitality management faculty. The University offers up to Bachelors’ degree in International Hotel Management.

Seminar participants at Hoa Sen University, Vietnam.

Growing consumer interest in U.S. turkey and duck in the Philippine provinces

The appetite for U.S. poultry products have spread to cities in other Philippine provinces. Philippines celebrated the Fourth of July by hosting a USAPEEC-sponsored cooking demonstration of U.S. poultry products, which include whole turkey and duck at Iloilo supermarket in Iloilo City.

Iloilo supermarket invited Chef Guido Njissen, the current chef and owner of Negros Museum Café, to carry out the cooking demonstration. Chef Guidon, who prepared the turkey in Turkish style with cranberry corn sauce, explained that his unique concept was inspired by the Turkish dried fruit markets. He also explained that the Duck a l’Orange dish with sugar beet herb sauce was cooked with basic Arabian spice trinity, consisting of garlic, cumin and coriander. Chef Guido was assisted by Ms. Maricon Parican, the Executive Chef of Great foods Concepts Inc., and Mr. Uno Leonor, an assistant cook at Days Hotel Iloilo.

Chef Guido Njissen preparing a U.S. poultry dish at the cooking demo held at the Iloilo supermarket, Iloilo City, Philippines.

Keen interest shown by Myanmar food trade

The USAPEEC Singapore office participated in the Food & Hotel Myanmar Show from 18-20 June 2014. Numerous inquiries were fielded from importers, restaurateurs, hoteliers and food service companies. Many of the trade visitors asked questions regarding product quality, sizing and packaging as well as trade contacts.

The enthusiastic responses generated during the event confirmed that local food traders were keen to import U.S. poultry.

Held in Yangon, the show attracted over 160 exhibitors from 23 countries. There were seven National Pavilions from Germany, South Korea, Portugal, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States. Final records from the show organizers indicated more than 5,940 visitors attended over the three-day show.

A wide range of foods, hotel, hospitality and bakery equipment and supplies were featured during the show.

Myanmar food traders inquire about U.S. poultry.

Restaurants adopt manpower saving techniques to combat shortage of staff

The drastic shortage of staff in the food service industry in Singapore has compelled restaurants to explore various avenues to overcome the labour shortage.

Several restaurants have started by replacing printed menus with tablets and iPads linked to the kitchen and the cashier (point-of-sale terminal).

Customers place their orders by touching the picture of the dish and sending it to the order cart. Once the customer has completed the order, the kitchen is informed of the order by table number. When the dishes are prepared, a service staff will deliver the dishes to the appropriate table.

Since the majority of customers are processing their own orders electronically, restaurant’s expenditure may be reduced by as much as 25 to 30 percent.

Another labour-saving technique used by yogurt and soft serve ice cream stall operators includes having customers fill up their yogurt cups directly from yogurt dispensing machines. Customers scoop up their desired toppings while the cashier weighs out the total contents and calculate the bill accordingly.

Restaurant owners are looking to save costs by having the majority of dishes prepared in a central kitchen. While this measure has been in practice in Singapore for more than two decades, the range and variety of dishes that are being prepared off-site is rapidly expanding.

Dishes such as grilled and roast meats, soups, curries, stews, gyozas, and tim sum items are now being in a central kitchen, resulting in significant cost savings in staff numbers.

Traditional print menus replaced by iPads.