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Seafood exporter taps potential of U.S. market

CHOICE PRODUCTS: An array of shrimp products from Tastee Choice which have been judged number one brand in the United States.

KOCHI: The Kochi-based Choice group, a major seafood exporter, expects to achieve a total sales turnover of $75 million by the next financial year in the U.S. alone, said Jose Thomas, chairman and managing director of the company.

Talking to reporters here, Mr. Thomas said the Indian brand unbreaded shrimp – TASTEE CHOICE – had become the number one brand in the U.S.

This year’s turnover in the U.S. alone was to the tune of $58 million.

The company hoped to touch $150 million turnover by 2012. Currently, seafood export from India was to the tune of around $1.2 billion.

Answering a query, he said the economic slowdown in the Western markets had not directly affected seafood exports. The “eating out concept” had taken a beating in the West, and people are now trying out newer recipes and also there is an upswing in the retail segment, especially in the ready-to-eat sector.

Restaurant sales have come down, but retailers are not affected, Mr. Thomas said.

The Choice group set up the state-of-the-art seafood processing facilities in Kochi in 1990. The products were exported to various companies in the U.S. for repacking and sale under its brand name with no identity of an Indian brand or origin.

For many years, the company was processing and packing products of international standards, though it could not mark its presence in the international retail market with an Indian brand. Choice set up an office in the U.S. named Choice Canning Company Inc. based in New Jersey, which was incorporated in 1987 as a wholly owned subsidiary.

This strategy, Mr Thomas explained, was adopted for eliminating middlemen as well as to offer a direct bridge between the production unit and consumer to ensure direct presence in the international retail markets worldwide.

Choice Canning Company Inc. developed their business from a turnover of $2 million to $6 million during the period from 1986 to 1989.

All products imported by Choice Canning Company Inc. were sold to domestic trading companies and these companies in turn re-packed the product into their own brands and sold it to major super markets throughout the country.

In 1999, a major milestone was the launch of its own brand – TASTEE CHOICE – for ready-to-cook shrimp in the U.S. consumer market. This required brand registration, completion of legal formalities , design of appropriate packaging, setting up the requisite distribution channels and devising marketing strategies for brand positioning and brand visibility.

The brand name is now legally registered with the Trade Mark Authority in the U.S., said Mr. Thomas.

Choice is now catering to two segments of the international retail market in the U.S. namely Retail chain — which mainly consists of international department stores, and food service chain — restaurants , hotels and other retail outlets.

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