Retailers treat Asia as one market and miss local palates

Innova Market Insights flags protein gut health and functional beverages as top three trends reshaping Asian demand.

Global retailers entering Asia are leaving money on the table by treating the region as one market when Thailand, Indonesia, India, and China each carry distinct consumer preferences, palates, and food traditions that a single import strategy cannot serve.

"The retailers think of Asia as one common market," said Gopal Chakarapani, Country Head (India) at Innova Market Insights during the THAIFEX – Anuga Asia. The consequence is predictable: products proven elsewhere arrive on Asian shelves without local adaptation and underperform.

The problem starts before the product ships. Retailers lean on importers and suppliers who carry the same blind spot, moving goods without first testing them against local flavour expectations, ingredient transparency standards, or health priorities that vary by market.

The answer is not a better product, it is a better conversation. Retailers need to brief suppliers on local flavour profiles before the import decision is made, not after a failed launch.

"Can you make your product more locally flavored," is the question Chakarapani says retailers should put directly to suppliers, with country-specific consumer data driving the ask. Done consistently, he argues, this single step turns an average import into one consumers will actually seek out.

On where demand is heading, Chakarapani points to three trends that Innova's annual research flags as dominant across Asia over the next two years. Protein tops the list, cited instinctively as a health marker by consumers who may not be able to define it.

Gut health follows, buoyed by its direct connection to immune function and a growing market for fibre-based products. Functional beverages round out the three, with consumers now expecting every drink to earn its place in their diet.

The pattern across all three is deliberate consumption. Retailers who cannot speak to that shift at the shelf level will find consumers who can shop elsewhere already doing so.