Century Pacific bringing popular Coco Mama to North America, Middle East
The maker of Century Tuna, Argentina Corned Beef and Angel Evaporada is eyeing to further expand its coconut business abroad, specifically in countries with a high presence of Filipinos, following its $40-million investment in the industry.
Speaking to reporters last week, Century Pacific Food Inc. (CNPF) chief operating officer Gregory Banzon said they were looking at North America and the Middle East for their international expansion of Coco Mama, the company’s coconut milk brand.
The product, which is used in cooking Filipino food such as “laing” and Bicol express, is currently only available locally, with high domestic demand keeping CNPF from offering it abroad.
“We’re seeing that even by serving as many supermarkets and groceries we can, our supply is not enough, so much so that it’s starting to attract new competitors,” Banzon explained.
“Demand is bigger than what we initially expected, so we’re trying to serve that because we created the demand, so to speak,” he added.
Data from the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) showed that in 2022, coconut milk was the country’s ninth most imported coconut product.
The Philippines imported 2,722.94 metric tons of coconut milk from Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam, with the PCA saying that it was an “area of concern that the [Philippines] should look into since the country has the capacity to produce this product.”
Meet domestic demand first
For their part, Banzon said they would first focus on meeting domestic demand before eventually offering Coco Mama in other countries.
This comes after the Po family-led company announced its $40-million investment to take over and expand Coco Harvest Inc., a producer of coconut water, coconut milk, desiccated coconut and virgin coconut oil in Misamis Occidental province.
According to Banzon, the acquisition was a result of its supply agreement extension with global coconut water brand Vita Coco.
CNPF is currently Vita Coco’s largest supplier of coconut water. With the company slated to continue supplying the product for another six years, Banzon said they needed a “significant increase” in volume.
The company’s coconut business currently contributes P6 billion in annual revenues, accounting for around 9 percent of the group’s P67.12-billion total revenue last year.
In July, CNPF said it would spend half of its planned P5-billion capital outlay this year on developing its coconut OEM (original equipment manufacturer) export business due to high demand from foreign markets.
