Global Industry Analysts Inc (GIA) announces the release of a comprehensive global report on Microwavable Foods markets.
The global market for Microwavable Foods is poised to exceed US$104 billion by the year 2017. Major factors driving growth in the market include convenience, minimal cooking time, busy lifestyles, and changing food and purchasing habits of consumers.
Long-term growth will be spurred by developing markets of Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle East, with their increasing urban tribe of higher-income, young and working consumers.
The era of convenience throws the spotlight on “Microwavable Foods”, infusing dynamism into the future growth of this market segment of the food industry. Demand for microwavable foods continues to grow, largely fuelled by convenience, ease of preparation and most importantly elevation of time constraints. Increase in the number of workingwomen, rushed lifestyles and changing trends in ethnicity have led to greater indulgence in the microwave cooking market.
Of the major trends influencing the industry, the most effectual is consumers with limited time on hands, who are on the lookout for easy meal solutions. Taste, food quality and convenience remain fetching factors for this market. Consumption of foods designed specifically for microwave cooking is projected to grow in view of product innovations corresponding to changing lifestyles and eating habits.
The collapse of the microwavable foods market in the early to mid 1990’s, awakened leading manufacturers to the significant role played by quality and innovation, as the two major market driving factors.
The market for Microwavable Foods is significantly impacted by contemporary, modern lifestyles. With technology advancements rushing an already frenzied life in the fast lane, food products designed to blend in with modern kitchen appliances is expected to witness renewed vigor, as already illustrated by the comeback of microwavable foods fortified with breakthrough knowledge and cutting edge technology.
Even as the microwavable foods market grapples with imminent high costs of product development and promotion /commercialization, leading companies are pooling resources to redirect the focus of packaging and ingredients research activities. Private labeled products in this category are expected to usurp a significant share of the market.
As microwavable food continues its rapid march, new trends are emerging in the related packaging market worldwide. Packaging plays a crucial role in ensuring that the food remains suitable for cooking in microwave oven, even after long hours of transit. Several types of packaging are being developed using patterned susceptors technology, new tray-lidding methods, and new cook bag techniques. In the upcoming years, food-packaging companies will be using powerful sensors, fuzzy logic, digital displays and other automatic features aimed at wringing utmost benefits out of microwave cooking.
Product packages of the next generation will be built to intelligently communicate to the consumer when to stir, uncover, add salt, etc. Recent unabated innovations in microwave product packaging were aimed at reducing superfluous and excess packages, while ensuring maximum freshness and taste.
Changing, erratic lifestyles and new technologies spawning the emergence of quick microwave frozen foods, is all set to scale convenience foods to new heights. As the next generation of convenient customer ready foods begins to hit the market shelves, highly processed Frozen Microwavable Foods will rapidly make inroads into the frozen food sections of supermarkets and grocery stores.
The segment takes center stage as the largest and fastest growing microwavable foods category, expected to surge ahead at a sturdy growth rate of more than 6.0% through 2017. Frozen and chilled prepared meals represent a rapidly burgeoning product category in Italian, Swedish and Spanish markets, depicting the steepest demand curve, followed by UK, US and France, among others. Presently, the frozen food section of a supermarket/grocery store is where all the action takes place, with close to 87.5% of microwavable foods originating from this section.
Developed economies of US and Europe represent the largest worldwide markets for microwavable foods market, as stated by the recent research report on Microwavable Foods. As one of the world’s leading technology driven economies, innovations in meal solutions are the most dynamic in the United States, driven primarily by the reluctance of Americans to prepare time consuming meals.
In Europe, UK, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy are the individual countries that will hold the most lucrative growth potential for additional convenience “occasions” in the upcoming years, driving forth high sales in the market.
Strong growth is envisaged from the developing countries in Asia, and South and Central America. In the Asian market, a healthy appetite for new and advanced technologies displayed by first time buyers is expected to provide the thrust required for explosive growth. The Asia-Pacific market is set to forge ahead at a strong growth pace of 7.4% through the analysis period.
Major players profiled in the report include Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation, Bellisio Foods Inc., Campbell Soup Company, ConAgra Foods Inc., General Mills Inc., Gunnar Dafgård AB, H. J. Heinz, Hormel Foods, Kellogg Company, Kraft Foods Inc., McCain Foods, Nestle SA, Pinnacle Foods Group LLC, Birds Eye Foods Inc., The Schwan Food Company, and Windsor Frozen Foods.
The research report titled “Microwavable Foods: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts Inc., provides a comprehensive review of the market, impact of recession, current trends &issues, key growth drivers, product profile, recent product introductions, recent industry activity, and profiles of major/niche global as well as regional market participants.
The report provides annual sales estimates and projections for Microwavable Foods market for the years 2009 through 2017 for the following geographic markets – United States, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Latin America.
Key product segments analyzed by the report include Chilled Microwavable Foods, Frozen Microwavable Foods and Shelf Stable Microwavable Foods. Also, a six-year (2003-2008) historic analysis is provided for an additional perspective.
