SE Asia Remains Strong for US Exporters

If you are a U.S. exporter of dried goods or beverages…thank Southeast East Asia for its reliability in tough times. And I am not even talking about the toll the pandemic has taken on supplier’s bottom line. When the trade wars really began to heat up around 2017, suppliers who exported a large percentage of U.S. food products were on the front line of the retaliatory strikes between China and the U.S. It could be said that U.S. dried foods category were used spearhead to impose punitive tariffs as response to China’s increases.

U.S. dried fruit and nut companies saw an 80% decrease in exports to China within the first year of the trade war! This was absolutely devastating, and drastic measures had to be taken to recover at least a small portion of that lost business. Enter the Southeast Asian marketplace. Do not get me wrong…the SE Asia has been a reliable export region for years. I know companies who exclusively export to Singapore. But for other suppliers...it was an area that was minute compared to China. I spoke with a few California nut suppliers who never went on trade missions to the Middle East and SE Asia, discovered a new interest. To simply put it…SE Asian importing saved several suppliers who were “China Heavy”.

The numbers bear that out. Let us look at Singapore and the increase in exports of U.S. consumer ready food products. These numbers encompass the year-to-year increase of exports between 2018 and 2019. This period is right in the middle of the US/China trade wars. U.S. exports of consumer ready food products totaled US$936.5 million in 2019, an increase of 20% from 2017.  Singapore is the largest U.S. consumer food export market in the SE Asia and the 20th largest overall.  Malaysia and Singapore also imported US$424.6 million of U.S. processed foods in 2025, an increase of 6%.  SE Asia is the 5th largest U.S. export market for processed foods in this region. The top three products are food preparations, snack foods, and processed and prepared dairy products. *

For industries like rice, nuts and grain not mentioned on this list…much of these products are shipped in bulk and added to things like snack foods as a food ingredient. Dried and processed food products rule the US export supply chain to the SE Asia. However, let us not overlook the retail and food service arena. Areas like Singapore have seen tremendous growth and there are no signs of it slowing down. Euromonitor estimates 2025 retail sales in SE Asia packaged food market was around US$5.7 billion.  That represents an increase of 23.7% and nearly US$1 billion from 2020!    They also forecast sales of packaged food in the area to reach nearly US$7.4 billion by 2025, an increase of US$1.4 billion and 23.7 %. *

Even during the pandemic, imports to SE Asia have continue to grow. For some US suppliers (and industries), exporting to SE Asia has become their main market whereas China not so long ago held that mantel. Furthermore, places like Singapore and Jakarta are seeing explosive population growth as well as higher standard of living.  With that said, I do believe that SE Asia and more specifically Singapore have a strong future for the US supplier. The opportunities to export are limitless and the demand for US food products is only growing. SE Asia is a large region and for years was somewhat closed to the US food supplier. We can honestly say now that in a world of pandemic and trade wars, it has emerged as a solid and reliable trade region. And with that I will see you in Singapore for the Food and Hotel Asia!

*Information obtained from Food Export Association of SE Asia