Sipping Soya Through a Straw

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Sipping Soya Through a Straw

In liquid or powdered form, whether poured over a plate of chow or curdled in a custard, soybeans have provided the Chinese with their main source of protein for 3,000 years. Some people in the Far East even call the soybean "the cow of China." Fittingly, a Chinese businessman in Hong Kong, K. S. Lo, has hit on the idea of milking a drink out of the bean and building a prosperous business around it. The product, called Vitasoy, has become the new soft-drink craze in the British crown colony.

Vitasoy is a milky brew that is enriched with vitamins and offers 5.9 gm. of protein in every bottle, or as much as a dish of spinach. A 6 1/2 oz. bottle costs 310, compared with 4 4/5-c- for the same size bottle of Coca-Cola. Sold either chilled in warm weather or warmed in cold, Vitasoy has captured 25% of the Hong Kong soft-drink market. This year an estimated 78 million bottles, second only to Coca-Cola's 100 million, will be sold from sidewalk stands, sampans and grocery stores for a total of $2,600,000. The drink's main drawback is that it tastes a good deal like liquid library paste.

Still, the success of the product attracted the attention of the Monsanto Co. of St. Louis. It went in with Lo's Hong Kong Soya Bean Products Co. to create a new, more flavorful soy-bean drink called Puma, which has more than 100 flavor ingredients, including vanilla, orange and cinnamon. Monsanto's Hong Kong subsidiary, Lomond Ltd., will produce the powder concentrate for Puma. The first franchise operations are now being set up in Guiana and Taiwan, and several others are expected to follow soon in other parts of Asia and Latin America. Lo, who owns one-fifth of the company's shares and gets royalties on Puma sales, is managing director of Lomond. Monsanto hopes that under his hand the proverbial cow of China may yet yield a truly international soft drink and, in the bargain, a handy source of protein.

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