Roquette, one of the leading companies in plant-based ingredients, celebrates the opening of its new Customer Experience Center in Singapore. This new facility aims at further advancing Roquette's leadership as a strategic partner to its customers for more exciting food innovations that suit the Asian palate. In addition, the brand-new center is a testament to Roquette's rich 90-year history of excellence and strong commitment towards serving its customers. Composed of a culinary studio and a sensory hub, it demonstrates Roquette's capabilities in elevating everyday food experience and value through science and innovation.

According to a 2021 study of PwC, Rabobank and Temasek, Asia is now the largest food consumer market, with an additional S$5.9 trillion (US$4.4 trillion) in spending expected by 2030 - considering that consumer choices will directly drive 55% of this increase. Furthermore, the pandemic has changed consumers' habits, especially in what and where they eat. Since then, eating healthier and using sustainable ingredients have become more prominent in Asia. The new Roquette facility will build a more robust Asian food story in developing delicious, innovative and sustainable food experiences.

A state-of-the-art facility focusing on Asian cuisine

The Customer Experience Center is designed to collaborate with food companies for greater food innovation. The culinary studio allows for various Asian cooking methods thanks to its multi-purpose capabilities that can effectively showcase the different possibilities of Roquette ingredients in Asian cooking styles, which appeal to today's sophisticated consumers of this region.

By imagining and designing the future of food, it welcomes a sensory hub where panelists can evaluate the functionality, taste, aroma, and visual appearance of a variety of Asian dishes using Roquette ingredients. The findings will support the development of new and unique solutions to suit Asian taste buds.

For Rohit Markan, chief executive officer of Roquette Asia Pacific, "The inauguration of this Customer Experience Center is close on the heels of the Food Innovation Center opening in France, and the third new facility to be inaugurated in 2023 by Roquette. It is another proof of Roquette's commitment to innovation and our deep understanding of building the right capabilities to serve the markets while tailoring our offer to consumers' eating habits. Moreover, as part of a global network of Roquette expertise, this new center lives up to our proven track record of bringing plant-based innovations to the food and nutrition sectors."

Asia's diverse countries and cultures, cuisine choices, dietary preferences, and varying maturity of food production systems have made Singapore, the location of Roquette's regional headquarters, ideal as a regional food innovation hub where like-minded companies develop future-ready and sustainable food solutions beyond its shores. The inauguration of the Customer Experience Center was graced by Damian Chan, executive vice president of the Singapore Economic Development Board, and was attended by many Roquette customers.

"Roquette's decision to establish its new Customer Experience Center here will leverage Singapore's status as a food innovation hub to serve the diverse cultures across Asia. This dedicated space will support partners, including Singapore companies, in developing novel food technologies, including alternative protein, by enabling the co-creation and advancement of products tailored to consumers' preferences in this region. We look forward to seeing more nutritious and sustainable food solutions that will augment our growing local agrifood ecosystem," Chan sums up.

With 90 years of plant-based innovation, Roquette has the expertise to reimagine food concepts that meet various consumer lifestyles' unique and essential needs. "The expertise we have accumulated gives us considerable advantages in the food and nutrition sectors. Singapore offers a vibrant ecosystem for food innovation to flourish and to develop new solutions for a more sustainable food system in the region," says Markan.