Tai Foong USA is building its business around U.S. consumers’ growing desire for restaurant-quality seafood snacks that are easy to cook at home.
“Everyone is busy nowadays. Everyone has parents or caretakers who are working; no one has enough time to put food on the table. It's getting harder and harder to find time to cook, and it's expensive to go out to eat. But, people want food that is appealing and ready to serve quickly,” Tai Foong USA Vice President Eric Lam told SeafoodSource at the 2024 Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Tai Foong USA, a Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based importer and distributor of seafood in North America, which operates the Northern Chef and Royal Asia brands, has a focus on sustainably sourced, value-added pan-Asian seafood products.
Its Royal Asia retail line features Shrimp Spring Rolls, Boom Boom Shrimp with Sriracha Aioli, Chilean Sea Bass Dumplings with Soy Ginger Sauce, Crab Rangoon with Marine Stewardship Council-certified Snow Crab, Honey Walnut Shrimp, Panko Calamari with Sriracha Aioli, and Shrimp Wontons. Its Northern Chef line for foodservice includes a number of frozen and cooked raw fish, as well as Nashville Hot Shrimp, Sea Salt and Pepper Calamari, cooked shrimp rings, easy-peel shrimp, and Argentine red shrimp.
“We want to give people a meal they can have at home easily and be happy about what they're serving to their family,” Lam said. “People want to add different flavor profiles to their everyday diets and quality ingredients, so everything that we put in our bags is chemical-free, with no additives and small ingredient decks – all things people feel good about serving to their families at home that can go from package to plate in 20 minutes or less.”
Lam said there had been a lot of recent interest in its Shrimp Miso Ramen, which was a Seafood Excellence Award finalist in 2023, as well as its Coconut Shrimp product, made with large, coated wild-caught shrimp from Mexico. Additionally, the company is particularly excited about its new Dim Sum offering, marking the first of what it expects to be an annual Lunar New Year collection.
“It’s in bright red packaging featuring dragons for this year. It has five lobster dumplings, five prawn hacao, and five prawn shaomai. We wanted something more upscale that you could have like a restaurant experience with. The lobster is in a black dumpling with a gold flake, so that’s a really cool experience when you bring it back home,” Lam said.
Recently, Tai Foong has begun branching into vegan and gluten-free products. Its Pad Thai Noodles with Tofu, Carrots, and Garlic Chives has been a success, and it is offering more of its products with gluten-free options – both for retail and foodservice – according to Lam.
“I think there's just a lack of gluten-free products in the market that are high-quality. There aren’t a lot of breaded seafood options out there that are gluten-free, so we are trying to fill that void in the market,” Lam said. “Beyond that, we want their flavor to be so good that even if you don’t have celiac, you still want to buy our products.”
Lam said Tai Foong’s approach to product development is immersive but that it also consciously tries to take a different approach from its competitors.
“We'll look at every angle – whether it be customer feedback, observations of what we see in the marketplace, restaurant trends, things we're seeing overseas, or just from our own travels,” Lam said. “Big for us is creating unique items that are authentic. The U.S. palate is growing more and more diverse, and [people] increasingly want to eat foods from all over the world. We're trying to bring that authentic experience to them as best as we can. We see a lot of products in the market that are trying to do it, but maybe they try to cater too much to the ‘American palate.’ But, we try to stay true to what the product should be, and we think that in the end, that's where we'll win.”
Lam, the third generation of family leadership at Tai Foong, which was founded by Lam’s grandfather in Hong Kong before a move to Toronto, Canada, and then Seattle in 1991, said business was tough in 2023 but that food trends are moving in the company’s favor.
“We're hanging in there,” he said. “There's a growing trend favoring Asian foods, so we're trying to help create more items in that space. People finding a crunch in their wallets are finding that going out to eat is a little more challenging to stay on their budgets, so they’re looking to see if that can get that restaurant-quality experience at home. Our goal is to just try to improve that whole experience.”
