Usman Younas, Country Manager of Kerry Pakistan
Kerry’s expansion into Pakistan represents a significant milestone in the global flavour industry, emphasising the country’s potential as a key player in the international food market. This strategic move not only addresses local production needs but also paves the way for innovation, economic growth, and collaboration with domestic partners. Usman Younas, Country Manager of Kerry Pakistan, shared his insights on this development with Nuffoods Spectrum.
What motivated Kerry to establish its first international flavour production operation in Pakistan, and why was Far Eastern Impex (FEI) chosen as a partner?
Pakistan is a dynamic and rapidly growing food market, with revenue in the food market projected to amount to US$112.07bn in 2025. The market is expected to grow annually by 7.02 per cent CAGR from 2025-2030. Kerry is the first global flavour house to produce in the country, and there are few local players. Kerry is addressing the gap in flavour manufacturing with its partnership with FEI, a company with world-class food ingredients manufacturing experience and a strong distribution footprint.
How will this local production facility benefit global and domestic food manufacturers, particularly in terms of innovation and speed to market?
As the first international production operation for flavourings in Pakistan, Kerry is now positioned to support the thriving Pakistani consumer food market with local production of taste solutions for global and domestic food manufacturers, including our global customer PepsiCo. For example, we will work closely with local herbs and spice producers to Kerry’s strict safety and quality standards. Utilising local raw materials will bring agility to our product development and supply chain and improve our response time to local customer and consumer needs. It will also enable food innovation tailored to what local consumers want, support the growth of global and local homegrown F&B brands, and bring opportunities to lift the local economy through job creation. Having a local production site naturally delivers a faster go-to-market process, reducing lead times.
With Pakistan’s food industry growing rapidly, how does Kerry plan to tailor its taste solutions to meet local consumer preferences?
Kerry’s proprietary research and insights on local consumer preferences and industry innovations and capabilities will feed into development streams. We have one of the leading industry teams with over 1,100 scientists, 70 Technology and Innovation centres,1,200 patents and 60+ university partnerships. Across our global teams, we pioneer, and problem-solve. From market-leading consumer insights and applying food and sensory science to solving manufacturing and regulatory challenges, we meet the local demands of our customers in their markets with our local teams, insights, and expertise.
What impact do you foresee this investment having on Pakistan’s food sector in terms of supply chain development, local talent growth, and economic impact?
In localising production through FEI’s advanced manufacturing facility, Kerry is setting an industry benchmark, signalling the development of local capability, and ensuring a faster go-to-market process, with a “Made in Pakistan” designation that appeals to manufacturers and consumers. It presents an opportunity to grow and uplift the quality standards of local raw materials and suppliers, local talent capabilities, manufacturing know-how, and more. Some of these improved local raw materials may be exported to other Kerry sites globally and in the open international market, which will bring revenue into Pakistan.
As the first global flavour house to produce in Pakistan, how does Kerry plan to maintain world-class standards and ensure product quality?
Kerry Globally has very strict quality and food safety standards. We collaborate with industry peers, academia, technical organisations and regulatory agencies to provide the thought leadership and guidance that enables food safety throughout the supply chain. All our global manufacturing sites are required to be certified against a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) recognised scheme.
Our food safety systems are risk-based with an emphasis on hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP), hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls (HARPC) where applicable, vulnerability assessments and strong prerequisite programmes to meet current and future requirements.
Our Global Supply Quality organisation (GSQ) is focused on optimising resources and minimising supplier risk in a consistent and sustainable manner across all regions. The scope of GSQ includes overseeing supplier (including third-party manufacturers) food safety, risk management, vulnerability management (food fraud), raw material buying specifications and issue management.
Working in partnership with procurement, RD&A, key business partners and industry stakeholders, we ensure our ingredients and food contact packaging suppliers manufacture safe products that are fit for use and meet Kerry’s standards. This enables end-to-end transparency and traceability of Kerry supplier risk management and compliance programmes.
From plant design to raw materials specs to finished product standards and technical IP, we maintain quality products to world-class standards.
Looking ahead, do you see the potential for expanding Kerry’s footprint in Pakistan beyond flavour production into other areas?
Although taste is number 1, Kerry solutions go beyond flavours and taste; we offer technology innovations and solutions in health and wellness, nutrition, enzymes, food protection & preservation, emulsifiers, and food service. With the sixth largest population in the world and rapid urbanisation, Pakistan’s demand for high-quality food products continues to rise and we are excited to develop our expertise and capabilities in this dynamic and rapidly growing market. With our partnership with FEI, we’ve taken the first step towards localisation and will continue exploring what more can be done at scale.
Shraddha Warde
shraddha.warde@mmactiv.con
