nasi lemakHokkien meemore variations of croissants than we ever imagined we’d consumeShah Alam bakery Cake Jalan TiungCotta, a restaurant and producer of locally made ricottahomegrown frozen smoothie popsicle purveyor POPMANPJ-based Cake Tella which is famous for alcohol-infused cakes.

"Business has not been doing well this year,” he notes. "So what we realised is we need to evolve according to time, otherwise we will be outdated.”

Given these remarkable changes in 2024, what new trends do they foresee in their particular fields next year?

Technology will continue to play a major role. Da Bao’s Alex Yeo foresees F&B businesses "will further embrace technology in their operations next year which may include trends such as a simple usage increase of QR code ordering, or a bigger budget allocated in social media marketing.”

On the flip side, Cotta’s Ivan Chong opines that the introduction of e-invoicing will result in "a lot of frustrated small restaurant/café owners. For corporate customers who park their ‘lunch meetings’ under expenses, imagine the extra time it takes to issue an e-invoice to them otherwise they too won’t be able to claim it as an expense.”

Not all is doom and gloom though. Health and wellness will continue to expand its reach in the local food sphere.

POPMAN’s Desmond Ng believes they will see "more companies hosting wellness events... and more clean eating/healthy F&B businesses come to market” while Cake Tella’s Eddie Tan notes that "older consumers are being more health conscious and cutting down on sugar consumption.”

Still, it can be tough to predict market trends or the whims of food social media.

Cake Jalan Tiung’s Hidzad says, "This year customers wanted the viral Dubai chocolate and tiramisu. We think that viennoiseries as well as French entremets will still have a strong foothold next year. Bold flavours like kimchi and gochujang from Korea and matcha from Japan may be staying a while longer.”

Ultimately, a good food entrepreneur ought to always pay attention to customer needs and changing dining/spending habits. This never changes.

As such, a more positive and growth-oriented perspective will be more useful than cynicism and naysaying. Take KITA Coffee’s Rain Lee’s ebullient attitude towards running an F&B business in today’s challenging climate, for instance.

She says, "I hope this group of community will grow even bigger in future. I strongly believe that more and more people will appreciate the efforts we and other F&B people put into producing better food and drinks - the possibilities are endless!”