Following the recent Korea Pack and Thaifex exhibitions, we thought we’d let you in on a few market insights, gathered from both the shows and our extensive activities in the Asia-Pacific region.
Despite wavering confidence over the strength of the American, Japanese and Chinese economies, generally the food and packaging market in Asia-Pacific remains strong – the region’s snacks foods sector is expected to post the highest global growth rates, at 6% per year until 2015 . Plus, the Asia-Pacific savoury snacks market value is predicted to rise to $27.5 billion by the end of 2015 . Such resilient and robust growth can be attributed to rising urban population levels and retail infrastructure development which are both driving and supporting the growing need for packed goods in the region.
At this year’s Korea Pack, the strongest trend by far was towards more healthy snacks, for example either baked (not fried) chips, or sunflower oil fried chips. Here, palm oil is commonly used for frying due its low cost and wide availability, however sunflower oil is considered to contain less cholesterol, and therefore be more beneficial. Now, with a move towards more healthy snacking, customers expect each potato chip to contain less than 35% oil after frying.
A second trend from Korea Pack is one that we’ve seen globally, namely reducing waste and increasing efficiency. Due to the high cost of product recalls caused by sub-standard products, manufacturers are now looking for packaging machines, such as the tna robag 3ci, which offer superior leakage reject rates of less than 0.1%, compared to traditional rates of 1%.
Meanwhile at Thaifex – World of Food Asia, snack biscuits and snack cereals seemed to be gaining popularity. Mothers are replacing the usual potato chips and pellet fried snacks in their children’s school bags with biscuits and cereal – a significant shift in eating behaviours. Plus, snack manufacturers are becoming more innovative when exploring non traditional snacks – with the latest trend being for baked rice (white and brown) snacks.
Have you seen any other emerging trends in his region? Are the key trends in Asia-Pacific representative of what is happening worldwide? We’d love to hear from you – share your thoughts in the comment box below.
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