Thailand: a Melting Pot of Bread and Biscuit Varieties

While rice is the staple grain in Thailand, the country has established its bread culture, which combines Western influences and local flavor. There is a lively, brightly colored display of brands on the shelves on this growing market.

In recent decades, Thailand has evolved into a stable and modern economy, despite a number of coups d’état, the latest of which was in May last year. Before, it was mainly a rural country and was the largest producer and exporter of rice. Today, it is the third largest, behind India and Vietnam. Rice is a Thai staple grain and a base for traditional meals. However, with the industrialization and modernization, people started to migrate to urban areas. By changing their surroundings, their lifestyles became more hectic and they began eating on the go. Additionally, the influence of the Western tourists and foreign traders increased the demand for their common staple – bread and baked goods. Baked products are becoming a meal of choice because they are practical and compact.

BREAD AS A STAPLE AND AS A SNACK

Before the 1980s, the demand for bakery products was minimal. But then the economy started to grow rapidly, with foreign trades and more foreigners coming to live in Thailand. Consequently, domestic people started to move from rural areas to large cities. This change in lifestyle led to less time for cooking and, as a result, the bakery business flourished.

As in other markets, Thailand has today different types of bakeries: industrial bakeries, retail bakery chains, in-store and small independent and artisanal bakeries. If they are segmented by product category, bread is the most popular with 40 per cent of shares.

There is a small difference in how Western consumers and Thai consumers see bread. In Western cultures, bread is a staple and, as such, it is used as a neutral base for building a meal. For Thai and other Eastern consumers, bread is more like a snack and less of a meal base. It has started to replace rice but the majority of people still see rice as the number one grain. So, regional bakers offer classic sliced bread, which is slightly sweeter than in Europe, but they also offer a great variety of quick snack products like filled buns and cakes.

Bread that is sold in retail chains or global and regional bakery chains, like BreadTalk or Secret Recipe, is very popular. This is because it is perceived to be fresh and better quality than pre-packaged bread. Nevertheless, there is also a demand for packaged sliced bread, too.

The largest packaged bread producer in Thailand is President Bakery. Other significant players in the market are C&W Interfoods, S&P Syndicate and S.T. Bakery.

BISCUITS

The biscuit market in Thailand is very fragmented. One can find many international players, such as Australian Arnott’s and Tim Tam, the American Oreo, the British McVitie’s, the French LU, the Italian Loacker and others, along with many regional and domestic brands. This is why biscuit manufacturers are very active in marketing and advertising.

An award winning packaging design agency from Bangkok, Prompt Design, has worked for some of the popular international biscuit names like Tim Tam and Loacker. It has also contributed to the success of several domestic brands. One of these is Pandaro,with its butter biscuits, which is made by European Food Pcl, shorter Euro. The company was founded in 1984 with the intention of producing “a world-classed quality of confectionery and bakery for Thai consumers.” The bag is black and white, showing a simplified panda face drawing. It looks very effective when it is on the supermarket shelf, surrounded by colorful competition.

Other Euro biscuit brands are the round thin Tizzi wafers, which have a chocolate, vanilla or strawberry filling. The design of the package is based on the colors of the flavors, with illustrations of biscuits as the main element and a dripping filling area at the top of the package. Designers used very thin, simple typography for the brand name to underline the gentle shape of the wafer inside.

You can read more on bread and biscuit brands in Thailand in the Summer issue of Asia Pacific Baker print magazine!