Market Trends of South America Specialty Food Ingredient Industry
This section covers the major market trends shaping the South America Specialty Food Ingredient Market according to our research experts:
Increase in Consumption of Healthy and Vegan Food and Beverages
The industry for specialty food ingredients essentially thrives on the wider technological and functional benefits that these ingredients confer, in terms of high quality, safety, affordability, nutrition, and deliciousness of processed food products. Processed food products include various categories, such as ready meals, baked foods, breakfast cereals, confectionery, meat substitutes, dairy substitutes, and non-alcoholic beverages. Specialty food ingredients are a vital part of a wide range of processed foods, thereby contributing to competitiveness in the food & beverage industry.
The demand for convenient foods has recorded robust growth in South American countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and others, owing to changing lifestyles and dietary preferences. Specialty ingredients, such as preservatives, emulsifiers, stabilizers, enzyme preparations, and others, enhance the nutritional profile of the packaged food and extend their shelf-life, thereby pushing for higher demands of these specialty food ingredients. Health and wellness, along with the rising preference for better-for-you foods in South America, have brought specialty ingredients to center stage, as they are increasingly customized to cater to wider functionalities and broader applications in the processed food industry.
Brazil as the Dominant Region in Specialty Ingredients Market
Brazil is the world's fifth-largest economy and South America's largest economy. It is the largest country in South America with the highest population, the highest GDP, and the greatest number of trades in South America, which has in turn led to an increase in sales of food and beverages in the country. Hence, it provides a good opportunity for the ingredient manufacturers to offer their products in-country and establish a good consumer base in the Brazilian market. Brazil is known for the increasing purchasing power of consumers and their appetite for innovative, safe, and high-quality food products. As the income levels of consumers have increased, the consumption of premium foods has also increased.
Moreover, the success of other prominent specialty food ingredients, like sweetener ingredients, has been quite evident from the recent success of the Brazilian sugar mills. As per the USDA data, these sugar mills are responsible for over 90% of the domestic sugar output, and they crushed over 42.06 billion metric tons in the early period of 2020-21, a significant increase from the 29.93 billion metric tons of the previous year. Brazilian consumers' interest in high-quality food products like specialty bread, cakes, and other such products has increased the demand for fortified drinks and functional foods across the region. Moreover, an aging population has a growing interest in attaining wellness through a healthy diet, which is resulting in the rising demand for specialty food ingredients in Brazil.
