Tassal nets best new product award at inaugural Seafood Excellence Asia Awards

Cooke subsidiary Tassal took home the Best New Product award at the inaugural Seafood Excellence Asia Awards – the first time the awards have been run at Seafood Expo Asia, running from 11 to 13 September in Singapore.

Tassal – a subsidiary of Cooke - won the award for its Tassal Tassie Smoked Salmon Twin Pack 2 x 50g. Second place at the award was given to Victoria Island Smokehouse for its Pure Prestige, Scottish Smoked Salmon, and Shanghai Shanhaiji Supply Chain Co. took home third place for its Ready-To-Eat Salmon Trout.

The winning entries were selected from a group of new products entered into the competition. A panel of judges including high-volume seafood buyers and industry experts from the retail and foodservice industries across Asia judged the products live during Seafood Expo Asia. Judges included representatives from Big C Supercenter from Thailand, CJ Freshway from South Korea, Emart from South Korea, ITM Alimentaire International from Thailand, and SMSI/Sysco from Hong Kong SAR. 

The new awards competition is an extension of the Seafood Excellence award events at Seafood Expo North America and Seafood Expo Global, Diversified said. [Editor's note: Diversified Communications also owns and operates SeafoodSource]

“The Seafood Excellence Asia Awards recognize the product leaders in the Asian seafood market,” event organizer Diversified Communications said. “The new products are judged based on several criteria, including eating experience, innovation, packaging, nutritional attributes, market potential, originality and convenience.”

Tassal General Manager of Marketing Libby Williams told SeafoodSource that the company’s winning product was developed as a way to offer customers greater convenience and improved packaging. 

“The insight for smoked salmon is that it’s often a bit of an indulgence, and people like having it in smaller sized portions,” Williams said. “So we came up with a smaller-sized twin pack so you can easily make sure it’s accessible any time you want it.”

The smaller-sized, double-packaged product allows for people to have those smaller sizes without then having an awkward amount of smoked salmon left over as can often happen in larger bubble packages, Williams said.

“It’s all about convenience, so delivering the delicious smoked salmon,” Williams said. 

Tassal Head of Sales and Marketing Matt Vince said the brand is already known and loved, giving the company a major advantage.

“Tassal is Australia’s leading smoked salmon and seafood brand, so we had permission to play with the brand that was well-loved,” he said. “We have a bulk pack, but this is about the convenience and indexing on the great taste that consumers love in a convenient package.”  

Photo by Chris Chase/SeafoodSource