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 | | JAPANESE CONSUMERS CHANGE DIETS FOR HEALTH | | | Euromonitor International | | 30/05/2008 | | | According to the latest research from Euromonitor International, health continues to be a strong preoccupation for Japanese consumers. The ageing consumer base inevitably heightened health-consciousness, plus consumers are also increasingly concerned with maintaining a healthy appearance. Many are exercising more but increasingly sedentary lifestyles are inevitable due to growing urbanisation, longer working hours and longer commute times. They are therefore keen to avoid gaining weight.
Japanese consumers’ growing focus on nutrition and diet posed a challenge to many product areas in packaged food. Many consumers attempted to reduce their consumption of packaged food altogether and to instead focus on the consumption of fresh vegetables, sea vegetables and fruit, along with unprocessed fish and meat. This inevitably hindered packaged food sales.
Many consumers are keen to cut back on their consumption of fat, sugar, carbohydrates and dairy, believing these substances to be bad for their health in excess and to lead to weight gain. Dairy is also blamed for many allergies.
In contrast, food that was able to offer a healthy and convenient proposition continued to see good growth. Fruit snacks for example grew current value sales by 7% in 2007 over the previous year, while prepared salad grew by 2%. The healthy image of porridge supported 10% growth for dried ready meals in the year, while fresh cut fruits also grew by 2%.
A shift towards natural food is highly likely; consumers will continue to lead increasingly busy lifestyles, which will reduce the time available for food preparation. However, these two trends need not be conflicting, with many consumers likely to increase their consumption of salads and raw food such as bean sprouts. This may well result in many moving away from packaged food.
For more information on this report from Euromonitor International, click here:
http://www.euromonitor.com/Packaged_Food_in_Japan?DCMP=AFC-cmp
For a full list of all health, food, beauty and ingredient market research reports available from Euromonitor International, please visit:
http://www.euromonitor.com?DCMP=AFC-cmp | |
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