Demand for Farm Fresh Kurma Milk rising rapidly
Dates milk or kurma milk has recently attracted a lot of interest in Malaysia following the debut of Farm Fresh Kurma Milk.
The demand for Farm Fresh Kurma Milk, the first of its kind in the market, seems to have outstripped supply. The Farm Fresh’s latest Facebook posting on Kurma Milk on 2 May 2017 has attracted at least 12,400 likes, 668 shares and 878 comments at the time of writing on 8 July 2017.
The benefits and attractions of Farm Fresh Kurma Milk has been discussed in an earlier post in March 2017. Click here for the article.
Available in modern grocery chains
A lot of the comments were about where they can purchase the milk. Officially, the kurma milk is available in modern grocery chains like Giant, Tesco and Aeon Big, Jaya Grocer and Hero. Unfortunately, stock tends to run out quickly. To get hold of the milk, consumers often have to resort to getting it from home dealers who have priority to the milk.
Developing home dealers
In fact, Farm Fresh is working to develop a network of home dealers to bring its milk to more households in the country, replicating the success of Yakult Lady.
The network of home dealers is expanding rapidly riding on the popularity of kurma milk among ethnic Malay consumers. The stockist in Muar in the southern state of Johor epitomises the strategy of harnessing the popularity of kurma milk to recruit new dealers.
The stockist and dealer distribution approach works well especially in the beauty and health food segments.
Milkbar taps festive marketing
To reach out to more potential customers during the Raya festive season, a kiosk at KL Sentral, a key transit hub, was set up by Farm Fresh at the Departure Hall. The Milkbar aims to ensure customers “receive the healthiest fresh milk available.” The star product was the often-out-of-stock Farm Fresh Kurma Milk. Date is commonly consumed during the break of fast during the fasting period, thus kurma milk is ideally positioned to tap into this cultural dietary practice.
Farm Fresh has even made available a limited-edition 2 litre kurma milk for Ramadan.
Other innovations from Farm Fresh
The complete list of halal-certified Farm Fresh Milk Sdn Bhd dairy products can be found here. A few that caught my eyes are Farm Fresh Cafe Latte – Tongkat Ali, Caffe Latte – Green Tea and Farm Fresh Greek Yoghurt.
Happy Farm Kurma Milk new player in town
The success of Farm Fresh has attracted the entry of Happy Farm into the nascent but fast growing category. The new kurma milk is packed by Favourite Resources Sdn Bhd and the key ingredients are fresh milk, kurma concentrate and milk fat. The 1 litre Happy Farm Kurma Milk is available at Giant for a price of RM 9.99, which is a premium to Happy Farm Fresh Milk selling at RM 7.29 per litre.
What Mini Me thinks
Farm Fresh is the company to watch. The company’s successful home dealer strategy and the popularity of its kurma milk are good examples of how a company localises its distribution, marketing and product innovation to cater to the conditions in Malaysia.
It would be interesting to see if other dairy companies will follow suit with their own kurma milk, which provides an opportunity to premiumise the fresh milk category.
