For decades Sriracha sauce has been an essential ingredient in the Thai kitchen. Today the chilli sauce brand has become the choice of top chefs around the world.

Shark Brand chilli sauce was founded 71 years ago by the Kosol-Ampa company. Krit Kongchayasukkawat, Vice Production Manager of Kosol-Ampa, is the third generation of the family-owned company. His great grandparents moved from China to Chonburi where they first made their chilli sauce.

Then company started exporting to USA in 1983, and now the Shark Brand is sold all over the world from Canada to the EU and UK, South Africa and Australia.

Top chefs such as American Andy Ricker have heaped praise on the Shark Brand. “It’s more than just a simple hot sauce of fresh chillies,” he says. “It has a light sweetness, a distinct vinegariness, and a bracing jolt of garlic.”

Throughout the brand has kept true to Kongchayasukkawat’s grandparents’ vision, using 100% local ingredients and the same recipes as 71 years ago. Even the method of producing the chilli sauce is the same, although some innovations have been used to make the taste more consistent, and to make sure every bottle is clean and safe for customers.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, production has fallen by 40%, but that has only made Kongchayasukkawat more determined to improve the Shark Brand product.

“To enhance the brand value, we are planning to do eco-packaging,” he says. “I got the idea from the paper beer bottle when I travelled abroad. We can turn the waste from the garlic we use into packaging.

“We had planned to expand into CLMV, especially Malaysia, but we will have to wait until the COVID-19 situation is better. In the meantime we are trying to invent a new line of products for healthy consumers. We are developing 80% reduced sugar recipes based on the same recipes but using a sweetener that is healthier than sugar. So far, the research shows that the taste change is only 1%.”

Kongchayasukkawat says that COVID-19 has also given him a chance to devise a new company plan to fit with contemporary lifestyles. It is an opportunity for him to do more online marketing on Facebook and learn further about the company’s domestic customers.

For those interested in food, do not miss THAIFEX-ANUGA ASIA 2020, which will be held online and offline from September 22 to 26 at IMPACT Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok.

For more information about Shark Brand, visit www.kosolampa.com.

Words by Ploylada Sirachadapong