The leading Nordic food company HKScan opened an office in Hong Kong on 13 January 2016, expanding its footprint in Asia. At the same time it launched Flodins meat brand targeting high-end restaurants and premium retailers. HKScan celebrated the official opening of its Asian sales office with the launch of Omega-3 pork products.
HKScan is the leading Nordic meat expert, who produce, market and sell high-quality, responsibly produced pork, beef, poultry and lamb products, processed meats and convenience foods under strong brand names.
Speakers at the launch included HKScan representatives and a Pekka Puska, a Finnish professor and expert on public health, gave a specialist view.
The flagship product in HKScan’s Asian offering is its family of tasty, tender-textured Omega-3 pork products, which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. This unique family of products – henceforth to be marketed as Flodins® Omega-3 pork – will first be sold through a selection of restaurants, after which it will eventually become available via wholesalers and retailers.
For many years now Asia has been an important export market for HKScan. Its leading Asia-bound products are Finnish-grown pork bellies and pork loins exported to Japan, a market with a high appreciation for pure, unpolluted foods. HKScan also exports Danish-grown chicken wings and drumsticks to Korea and Malaysia as well as Swedish-sourced products such as pork trotters and offal to various Asian countries.
“Up to now we have only exported frozen meats to Asia. The launch of fresh meat exports is a new inroad for us. Thanks to our efficiently coordinated cold chain, our Finnish Omega-3 pork products will find their way fresh to our Asian customers within 24 hours,” says Jukka Nikkinen, Executive Vice President, Away from Home at HKScan.
Consul General Jari Sinkari remembered his youth in a Finnish countryside when speaking at the opening dinner and welcoming HKScan into the Finnish-Hongkongese business community.
“The more fat the meat contained the better – and all green things were supposed to be dumped from plate to animals”. That was the mentality in the 1970’s North Karelia before professor Pekka Puska launched his groundbreaking campaign to fight cardiovascular disease with more balanced diet.
The Finnish narrative with healthier food and better public health is also a strong story of companies taking more responsibility in the quality of their products.
HKScan has developed its products with Finnish researchers. Flodins pork contains 4 times more favourable Omega-3 compound than normal meat. The secret behind this is rapeseed feed (Yau choy in Cantonese).
Their exports are a direct response to current demand patterns in Asia, where consumers are showing a growing preference for healthier foods and lifestyles. Healthy diet choices are a rising trend particularly among the young urban population in Asia.
“HKScan has a good reputation not only for its high quality but also for its responsible production. We are delighted to have the opportunity to launch our premium offering in Hong Kong at a time when local consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of food quality, purity, safety and responsible production methods,” says Hannu Kottonen, CEO of HKScan Group.
“HKScan’s key assets are the transparency of our production chain, the traceability of our raw materials and our good animal health status, and this naturally goes for our exports too. Finland and Sweden for instance observes a zero-tolerance policy on salmonella, which is rare by European and global standards,” adds Kottonen.
In the near future HKScan will be seeking further growth in Mainland China, Japan, Singapore, Korea and other Asian markets. Expansion into Asia via Hong Kong as its launch pad is part of the company’s profitable growth strategy. Having a local presence in Asia is critical for the Group’s export expansion strategy in Asia, affirms Kottonen.
“We plan to open a second sales office in China as soon as the authorities have completed processing the relevant permits and our exports from Finland to China begin in earnest. It is highly important that we work together efficiently and systematically to secure export permits for a variety of meats and processed products across all our production countries. Our office in Hong Kong is a commission agent that offers other high-quality Nordic food brands the opportunity to establish a presence on the growing Asian market alongside HKScan,” says Kottonen.
HKScan currently exports to nearly 50 countries around the world.
HKScan is the leading Nordic meat expert. Their customers are the retail, food service, industrial and export sectors, and our home markets comprise Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the Baltics. They export to close to 50 countries.
