Carefully arranged green beans and an Asian wok sauce in a kit. Asian Chef is a recently introduced innovation, developed by Van Oers United. With this innovation, the production and commercial enterprises will meet the ever-changing wishes of consumers, particularly regarding convenience and variation.
The legume market is developing positively, according to Eugène Bode, Category and Marketing Manager of Van Oers United. “In the Netherlands, the overall growth is about two per cent, and we’re also seeing the market growing in other countries. For us, this is reflected in an extension of our clientele and our programmes. Recently, some French retailers started with Van Oers green beans under the Primeale brand. Vegetables in general are getting much attention, they’re delicious and healthy, and sales have developed well in the past two years. Besides, the group of flexible vegetarians is growing, and they’re looking for alternatives to meat or fish. Legumes are an ideal replacement for meat or fish, and that’s why we expect the market to continue growing.”
Green bean preparation methods expanding
Van Oers offers, among other things, a broad range of legumes: green beans, fine beans, haricots verts, mangetout (pods) and snap peas. Eugène: “The strength of Van Oers is that these are available year-round, because we source them from our own production locations in both the Netherlands and France and African countries that we’re involved with through one of our production partners in Africa and South America. We have a stable demand for legumes year-round. Green beans are, unsurprisingly, Van Oers biggest product in legumes. Traditionally, cooking green beans is still a popular method of preparation , but newer cookery techniques such as a stir-fry, oven dishes, grilling and barbecuing are gaining popularity. This is actually the case for all vegetables.”
French beans are traditionally popular, and this will remain the case, because younger generations are also familiar with french beans. However, they prepare the beans differently, they don’t cut them before cooking, they cut them in larger diamonds and stir-fry them. The popularity of snap peas is growing rapidly. It’s a tasty and high-quality product with a crunchy bite and sweet flavour, and it ends up in (stir-fry) dishes more and more often nowadays.
Convenience in cleaning and inspiration for preparation
Removing the strings of legumes is actually no longer necessary. Eugène: “The Van Oers varieties we grow at all locations, the skill of our colleagues and harvesting at the right time result in green beans, legumes, snap peas and haricots verts without strings. Besides, these varieties require less time to prepare. Convenience and speed in preparation are very important for modern consumers. For our customers it’s also important we supply the highest quality year-round, and that we can guarantee optimum availability and reliability of delivery. Our national and international production programmes are designed for this as well, for example, by spreading production across multiple countries per season.”
As said before, the sales of legumes are increasing, but even though they’re easier to clean than in the past, consumers are still looking for inspiration and convenience. “We meet consumers in this with the introduction of Asian Chef. Asian Chef consists of a kit containing fresh green beans and a choice of three different Asian wok sauces: Sayur (Indonesia), Curry-coconut (India) and Char Siu (China). The green beans are naturally of high quality and carefully arranged, so that they’re easily podded, removing tops and bottoms, so they can quickly be stir-fried in a wok with some oil and the sauce.”
“Asian Chef can be prepared as a side dish and rice or tofu/meat/fish can be added for a more substantial meal – the combinations are endless. We challenge consumers to share as much of their inspirations and dishes of Asian Chef with us and other Asian Chef enthusiasts via a major social media campaign that’s soon starting. An Asian Chef kit contains 350 grammes of green beans and 70 grammes of sauce, and this is a good amount for two people, making it easier to eat the daily recommended amount of 250 grammes of vegetables per person per day.”
International flavours increasingly more popular
Van Oers responds to multiple trends with Asian Chef: internationalisation, inspiration and convenience. Eugène: “The world is getting smaller, Asia is just one click away. Consumers are confronted and inspired by international products, dishes and preparation methods, such as stir-frying, more and more. International flavours such as coconut, curry and spices are becoming increasingly more popular because of this. Besides, we’re seeing a trend that I like to call convenience/‘snackification.’ Demand for convenience products with a short preparation time is growing. Consumers have less time to spend in kitchens – did you know that the average time Dutch consumers spend on preparing dinner is just 18 minutes? However, consumers are also looking for inspiration, and this is the case for millennials in particular. We’ve also seen a large part of consumers regularly uses a kit to prepare a meal. However, this does have to be tasty and healthy. When creating such a kit, it’s therefore important to keep portion size in mind. After all, the average household is getting smaller.”
“Our Asian Chef concept meets all of these requirements. We asked Blauw Research to conduct a study to find out how well the concept does with consumers. Respondents think this concept offers convenience and innovation, it’s a good alternative for variation using standard beans, and it’s easy to prepare.” Eugène concludes with one respondent’s quote: “The design is Eastern and exudes quality. It’s innovative because everything is combined in one kit. This is convenient, and moreover, it’s easy to prepare and delicious.”
More information:
Van Oers United
Eugène Bode