In line with worldwide trends, the market for flavor and fragrance materials in Australia and New Zealand is shrinking. During the last two years, Givaudan-Roure has moved their perfume manufacturing to Singapore, Colgate has closed down in-house perfume and flavor manufacturing in Australia, and there are persistent rumors that two other major multinational companies will move manufacturing to Southeast Asia.
Although the ‘buzz’ word on everyone’s lips today is the Asian crisis, perfumes and flavors will remain in demand, albeit at reduced levels, while pressures increase to reduce costs. Having invested enormously throughout Southeast Asia during the early 1990s, international manufacturers must ensure plants work at maximum efficiency, logically leading to the consolidation of perfume and flavor manufacturing in the region.
These moves have already had a decisive effect on the essential-oil and aromatic-chemical sales in Australia and New Zealand. At the same time, an increase in the already overcrowded number of suppliers has emerged in the region making the market very competitive, much to the delight of the small band of local manufacturers.
