More than just fish sauce

Although an exporter, Tentay Food Sauces, Inc. is classified as a backyard producer because there is no technology involved in making fish sauce or patis. The ingredients used–fish and salt–are standard. What differentiates one fish sauce producer from another is the mix of ingredients or how much salt is used in a kilo of fish.

Tentay Food is currently fish sauce leader, with a 50% share of the market. Close to half of its total annual production of 2.5 million boxes (each box containing 24 bottles, each bottle weighing 712 grams) is exported to the United States, Canada, Japan and the Middle East where there are thriving Filipino communities.

Fish sauce is lumped together with other sauces such as soy sauce, vinegar and catsup as well as mayonnaise by the National Statistics Office. The sauce industry is estimated to generate P12 billion in sales every year.

Brand positioning

Tentay Food remains a family business. It was started in 1939 by the family of Ruperta David Javier (who was called Tentay for short), about the same time that its nearest competitor, Rufina, opened for business.

Through the years, Tentay Food has retained its market leadership, largely through brand positioning. It has segmented the market into three and have priced its products accordingly.

"We use caramel additives for our lower grades," said Tentay Food executive vice-president Belia Cruz. "The high-end fish sauce that we sell here is also the one that we export. We do not discriminate by putting a ‘for export only’ label on the products we sell abroad."

This year, Tentay Food projects a 50% growth in sales, well within the 48% growth estimate of the NSO for the sauce industry. Sales will be driven by the local market where its low-end fish sauce is now used as a viand rather than as a food enhancer.

Competition

Export sales will, however, continue to be hampered by cheaper fish sauces from other countries. Thailand-made fish sauces, for example, offer discounts of as much as 20 cents per 750 ml, largely because of government subsidies. "Fish sauce has grown into an industry which other Asian countries have found to be lucrative," said Cruz. "Although we’ve been in these markets longer and have developed them, we’re been out-priced by Thai fish sauce for the past three years."

To compete in the export market, Tentay Foods intends to actively look for new markets, participating in more food expositions and using the contacts of the country’s trade attaches. Because of its profitability, fish sauce is included in all vital meetings of the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture here and abroad.

In the local market, Tentay Foods intends to defend its retail network while developing institutional accounts more aggressively .

"We’ve maintained our market leadership because we have a strong brand and a wide distribution network ," said Cruz. Tentay Food intends to keep it that way, here and abroad.