2/17/2005 Bangkok Post - Nestle (Thai) Co has introduced a coconutmilk-like cream which it hopes to substitute for a traditional basicingredient in Thai cooking.

The company is tapping the demand for coconut milk or "kati", shunned inrecent years by health-conscious consumers due to its high cholesterolcontent.

Though made from palm oil (12.5%) and skimmed milk powder (5%), CarnationKa-Ti cream contains no cholesterol, the company claimed.

Daniel Frick, marketing manager for the company's home cooking andculinary business, said the new product had huge business potential.

"Consumers have eaten less food made from coconut milk and limited theconsumption of food with high levels of saturated fatty acids. So our newproduct will serve this market demand," he said.

The company said that a 392-gramme can of Carnation Ka-Ti cream contained60 calories.

Compared to other coconut-milk substitutes in the market today,Nestle{AAC} claims its Carnation Ka-Ti cream, retailing at 20 baht a can,contains 64% less saturated fatty acids, 44% less total fat and 29% fewercalories from fat.

Carnation Ka-Ti cream would challenge both fresh natural coconut milk andcoconut-milk substitutes, of which a handful of brands are availableincluding Ampol Food Processing's Chaokoh, Thai Agri Foods's Aroy-D, andTCI Foods's Tapsakae.

The market size of dairy milk and coconut milk products sold at stalls isestimated at two billion baht a year.

Apart from Thailand, Carnation Ka-Ti will be exported to Malaysia in thefuture.

The Carnation brand has a 54% share in the 500-million-baht evaporatedmilk market, followed by Foremost (34%), Bird Wing (7%). With the launchof the new product, the market share of Carnation will rise to 57-58%.

Consumption of evaporated milk peaked six years ago before declining butthe market started to grow again over the past three years. Last year, themarket grew by around 9%.