Ice cream exports soar! Max Food invests 200 million to strengthen production lines with innovation, launches “Mini Watermelon Sorbet”, the first in the world!

Mr. Thanapong Juiprasert, Managing Director of Max Food Group Co., Ltd., talked about the trend of ice cream exports and the popularity of Thai fruit ice cream products in the international market. He said that Thai ice cream products are highly accepted and in high demand in many international markets, especially Thai fruit ice cream products that have good taste, variety and novelty. As a result, Thailand has recently continued to be the number 1 exporter of ice cream in the Asian region and the 4th in the world. The average value over the past 5 years (2020-2024) is 106 million US dollars or approximately 3.486 billion baht, expanding by an average of 11% per year. As for Max Food Group, it has grown continuously over the past 5 years, making the company today the 9th largest ice cream manufacturer and exporter in Thailand. The main products are fruit sorbet ice cream, accounting for 70%, mochi ice cream 20%, and fruit sorbet ice cream in cups 10%, from a sales proportion of 99% abroad and only 1% domestically.

Due to the climate and drought problems, fruits, which are important raw materials for production, are insufficient. Even though there are many orders from abroad, it is still not possible to produce and deliver to customers. Therefore, to solve the problem and prevent the risk of insufficient raw materials, as well as increase the potential and production capacity to support the increasing growth every year, the company is taking action in 2 ways simultaneously: 1. Manage the problem and prevent the risk of raw materials by investing more than 30 million baht in breed development and planting pineapples, an important raw material for the main product in Chiang Rai Province, over 1,300 rai, and Saraburi Province, over 100 rai, which will yield a total of approximately 10 million pieces from the end of 2024 to the end of 2025. It also signed a contract to purchase products from farmers (Fame Contact) for another 30, totaling approximately 1,000 rai of planting area, which are various fruits used in ice cream production, to be stored in the cold storage room of the factory with a capacity of up to 1,000 tons, which will allow ice cream to be produced for customers all year round, solving the problem of raw material shortages and reducing costs.

In terms of production, Max Food Group has made significant progress by investing over 200 million baht in expanding and constructing a new factory from 2,000 sq.m. to 5,000 sq.m. This will increase both potential, efficiency, and production capacity by three times, from the original 30,000 pieces per day to 90,000 pieces, or from 350 containers per year to 800 containers per year, while also setting a new standard for ice cream products for the company, with both flavor and texture that are outstanding, a distinct strength and desired by customers around the world.

The new factory of Max Food Group is considered a modern ice cream factory that is packed with innovations and modern technology. With a complete production and waste disposal ecosystem, it is highly environmentally friendly and focuses on creating true sustainability, such as new innovations that change the use of electricity to freeze ice cream to use renewable carbon dioxide gas instead, which helps shorten the production time from 4 days to 12 minutes, can save energy, reduce electricity bills from more than 1 million baht per month to 200,000 baht per month, install solar cells to generate electricity as renewable energy within the factory, zero waste management, 100% wastewater recycling, etc. By using modern technology to manage the production process With the goal of sustainable organizational development (ESG), the company received the CEO Economass Award 2024 from the Prime Minister and the 2024 Business Model of the Year Award in the Food and Beverage Business Sector from the Foundation of the Science and Technology Council of Thailand.

This year's new products are very interesting. The company has launched the Mini Watermelon Sorbet Ice Cream for the first time in the world. What's special about this new product is the development of a variety and yield of small watermelons without genetic modification to be used as fresh watermelon containers for ice cream. After being presented to customers in many countries, it has received a lot of attention and received many orders. It was exported to Korea first.

In terms of marketing, the company still focuses on the international market, with exports and distribution in 7 countries: Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Australia, and Vietnam. The target for expanding into new markets is the Middle East, Africa, and the United States, which must wait for the clarity of the results of the negotiations on the tax agreement between the Thai and US governments again. The new factory standards are considered a very important advantage in expanding the international market because distributors and consumers give importance to every component of the product, which must be concerned with environmental conservation and sustainability.

In addition to OEM and expanding the domestic market, this year the company has also launched its own product brand called MaxFresh, which will penetrate the European and American markets. It is expected that the total revenue from OEM in the domestic market and export markets under the Max Fresh brand this year will be 1,000 million baht, which is an increase of approximately 10% from last year.

For those interested in company details and products from Max Food Group, more information can be found at www.maxfoodgroups.com/

Maxfood Group / Ms. Nattakan Inpeng (PR)