Retail volume sales and value sales hot drinks are set to post gains in 2020 in light of COVID-19 and the pandemic-related regulations that have forced consumers to spend more time at home. In the early months of 2020, at the onset of the pandemic, there was a slight uptick in demand for hot drinks and incidents of stockpiling occurred as worried consumers prepared to hunker down at home. But that period was brief, and shelves continue to be well-stocked. Of course, foodservice volume sales…

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, growth for hot drinks overall was being stimulated by increased coffee consumption due to the increasing variety and availability of coffee, including fresh ground coffee and coffee beans, and the expansion of coffee shops offering speciality coffee. Price continued to play an important role in consumers’ purchasing decisions and manufacturers frequently offered price discounts to encourage sales amongst price-sensitive Belarusians.

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Juice consumption is still developing in Kazakhstan as locals are not used to drinking it on a regular basis. For example, consuming juice at breakfast like people in many other countries do, is not common in Kazakhstan. Instead, it is considered a drink for special occasions such as birthdays, dinner parties or other events at home. During the COVID-19 crisis, people have visited their friends and relatives less to prevent spreading the virus. Due to the reduced number of social occasions,…

The government’s extensive efforts to promote healthier diets, with less sugar, added or natural, a major preoccupation, gained traction among Singaporeans during the review period. This explains the ongoing decline in juice sales in Singapore. However, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has fostered a circuit breaker and home seclusion measures to halt the spread of the virus. Thus, consumers have been encouraged to work and study from home as non-essential businesses and educational…

While juice has been one of the worst impacted soft drinks categories during 2020, the category had already been experiencing a downward trend prior to the pandemic. However, the emergence of COVID-19, resulting in local consumers prioritising their spending due to increasing price sensitivity, only served to encourage a further move away from juice through both off-trade and on-trade channels. Ironically, unlike carbonates, juice suffers from a negative image to its sugar content, which has…

Sales of other hot drinks had started to experience declining demand prior to the emergence of the pandemic in both retail and foodservice terms, with 2019 experiencing warmer than usual temperatures during the winter. Meanwhile, a newer trend had emerged amongst an increasing number of consumers, particularly younger generations, showing a preference for iced drinks over hot drinks. South Korean consumers were increasingly looking for iced beverages regardless of the weather…

Packaged food sales in Finland in 2020 are set to be heavily impacted by COVID-19. The government’s response to the virus has been the most important factor driving or depressing sales. Workers were advised to work from home as much as possible and all schools and universities were closed from 16 March, in addition to the shuttering of state-run facilities such as libraries, theatres and museums. This meant that for the first half of the year, most Finnish consumers were at home, driving…

Overall, COVID-19 is not expected to have a dramatic effect on retail volume and current value sales of packaged food in 2020, with growth in line with the review period. All the same, there has been some changes in consumer behaviour which is expected to affect volume sales of certain products.

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During the COVID-19 crisis, the average number of meals consumed in the home rose to four from 1-2. This is due to an increased number of consumers working from home during the pandemic, which means they are more likely to consumer meals at home. This is expected to have a positive effect on retail sales of packaged food in Turkey, as consumers require more cooking ingredients as well as convenient and easy-to-prepare meal options to eat at home. Pasta, rice and bread are expected to see a…

As states began to introduce lockdown measure across the US, many consumers began purchasing much larger quantities of groceries to build up a stockpile of food at home. Driven by reports in the media and online, there were widespread fears of food supply shortages and the risk of infection from taking too many trips to the store. Since consumers were purchasing enough food to last them for weeks or even months, non-perishable products were often favoured over fresh foods with shorter…

Processed meat and seafood is seeing a positive boost in 2020, thanks to the increased rate of home-cooking due to foodservice closures as a result of COVID-19. Chilled and frozen meat and seafood sales are seeing a particular increase due to home-cooking (especially frozen, due to the longer shelf life and ease of storage), whereas shelf stable meat and seafood benefits from stockpiling, as consumers stocked up on cupboard fare in case of a decline in the availability of fresh meat and…

In the early stages of COVID-19 there was widespread panic seen across the US about potential food shortages, with most areas of processed meat and seafood benefiting from stockpiling. The strongest interest was seen in frozen and shelf-stable processed meat and seafood products, which are better suited for stockpiling than chilled products. This included many categories that had fallen out of favour among consumers, especially younger families, many of whom are sceptical of highly processed…

COVID-19 is expected to negatively impact ready meals with significant retail volume decline and minimal current value growth. With people spending more time at home, there was increased cooking and less demand for convenient ready meals. As in 2019, shelf stable ready meals records the highest current value growth. A degree of this growth was due to its long shelf life, as consumers stockpiled during the initial period of lockdown.

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Growth of RTD coffee in total value sales slowed to single digits in 2020 from a double-digit growth rate in 2019. Home seclusion during COVID-19 resulted in a considerable decrease in consumption in physical stores such as convenience stores, hypermarkets, and supermarkets. Sales via traditional channel such as independent small grocers were particularly badly affected, especially stores located near schools and around entertainment venues, which remain closed in the first half of 2020.…

RTD coffee faces challenges in 2020 and sales have been negatively affected by impacts from COVID-19. RTD coffee is a niche in Guatemala, with a rather restricted consumer audience of higher-income consumers who lead busy lives and purchase it as an on-the-go beverage. Therefore, the lower consumer spending power and restrictions on movement, such as working from home, are factors which have combined to negatively impact RTD coffee. Furthermore, as consumption in on-trade channels is too…

Over 2020 as a whole, RTD coffee is expected to see positive off-trade volume growth for the first time since 2016, the first year of the review period. Circuit breaker measures to curb community COVID-19 transmissions included government calls for Singaporeans to work and study from home and the closure of foodservice establishments. Consumers have tended to transfer their on-trade and workplace coffee drinking habit to their home office or study. While stay-at-home consumers have more time…

Prior to the emergence of the pandemic, demand for RTD coffee through off-trade had been positive but undynamic with slowing volume growth noted towards the end of the review period. This was largely due to the strong café culture developing in the country because of rising sophistication, which had seen increasing demand for freshly brewed coffee from specialist coffee shops, driven by younger, urban consumers who are more open to experimenting with different blends and types.

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Prior to the pandemic, increasingly sophisticated consumer demand meant consumer purchasing decisions were increasingly based on more value-added aspects such as packaging, taste, and brand image. Therefore, milk tea from street stalls/kiosks gradually became the first choice instead of RTD milk tea among consumers. Milk tea from street stalls/kiosks usually mixes tea with cheese, cream, fruit, and different levels of sugar content to create multifaceted flavours of milk tea. Moreover, the…

Foodservice closures, which have extended for a long time in Guatemala, have created plummeting volume sales for RTD tea in the country. Although there was some migration to at-home consumption, this did not compensate for the loss in foodservice channels. Consumers are less likely to drink RTD tea at home, as they can simply make their own tea instead of buying it ready to drink for on-the-go consumption, or for consumption in workplaces. Therefore, consumers spending more time at home has…

Kazakhstan is a country with strong traditions of drinking hot tea. Therefore, RTD tea remains strongly dependent on weather conditions with sales typically peaking during the summer period. Over the review period, RTD tea players were forced not only to attract consumers through offering more accessible prices, but also through educating them about the advantages of the product, for example through promoting the natural health benefits (as the products are based on green tea) and the fact…