A trip to China provided an opportunity for customer engagement and emerging opportunities in the region

The Tirlán Ingredients Commercial team and R&D team recently visited China and Southeast Asia. Darren Barcoe, Dan O’Kane, Verona O’Shea, Colm O’Brien and Rory Hannon travelled to Shanghai to visit Tirlán’s key accounts, Fresenius and Danone. In between customer visits, the team attended the Food Ingredients China (FIC) tradeshow, the largest tradeshow in the ingredients industry in China. This event serves as a key platform for both domestic and international companies to showcase innovations and connect with the Chinese market.

The customer visits and tradeshow participation are of significant importance to the business, providing an opportunity to engage with customers in-market and gain firsthand insights into their operations, local challenges and emerging opportunities in China and Southeast Asia.

Both Fresenius and Danone have made investments in China with a view to supply the growing medical nutrition market in China, South East Asia and Europe. Building relationships with customers remains a priority and understanding their needs allows Tirlán to continuously enhance its service and expand business partnerships with these customers in growing markets and on a global scale.

The trip also provided an opportunity to highlight Tirlán’s extensive R&D capabilities and the substantial investments made in facilities and talent. While virtual technology has improved significantly in recent years, in-person interactions continue to be the gold standard for relationship building.

The day at FIC was particularly insightful, offering a valuable perspective on market opportunities and trends in China. Given the scale of the market, the ability to engage with key industry players, including customers and competitors, provided a comprehensive view of developments in the region. Globally, trends around healthy ageing and GLP-1 supplementation are continuing to grow and these trends were evident in China as well.