Vegetarian Foods Market Assessment

PRLog (Press Release) – Apr 13, 2007 – Vegetarian Foods Market Assessment

The rising awareness and uptake of vegetarianism as a method of addressing health related food scares (such as BSE/CJD) and animal cruelty issues, plus the fact that broadening ranges of vegetarian products are bringing the sector into the mainstream foods market, have resulted in the need for Key Note to produce a new report on vegetarian foods. This report, which includes current retail sales data from Information Resources and consumer purchasing data from National Opinion Poll (NOP) Solutions, presents the most detailed and comprehensive study to date on the market. Other important information sources used in compiling the report have been The Vegetarian Society, the Realeat surveys from Haldane Foods, and government publications detailing longer-term trends in meat eating.

The vegetarian foods market has been divided and surveyed in five main sectors, namely ready meals (including snack meals), sausages/burgers/grills, bakery (pastry) products, meat substitute ingredients, and other (largely delicatessen) products such as sliceable meats, pâtés, pastes, etc. This breakdown largely follows previous Key Note reports and, more importantly, the market categories of Information Resources - whose data is recognised by the trade. It also answers a major challenge faced by other report writers, that of presenting relevant and consistent data in terms of products covered. Substantial retailer coverage of all major multiples makes the inclusion of extra sales (estimated at 8-9% for sales through health food shops, convenience stores, etc.) necessary to reach a total market size.

Changing priorities and price deflation resulting from strong competition, have meant that any growth in household expenditure on food/drink has fallen behind other areas, such as motoring and leisure services, in recent years. More significantly, household spend on meat has been falling, principally with regard to beef and beef sausage, which have been affected by health scares and lifestyle issues. The decrease in meat consumption would have been greater had it not been for the growth in poultry sales, and all decline will in part relate to the spread of vegetarianism. This is supported by the fact that there is a greater fall in spend on meat within younger age group households, and it is well proven that vegetarianism is much stronger among the young (and particularly among females). However, the culture will undoubtedly spread to older age groups in time, addressing the challenge of a gradually `greying' population comprising an increasing proportion of over 35s.

The proportion of vegetarians is slowly increasing, with double the number of females than males within the category. Although currently the proportion of vegetarianism falls as age increases, there has been a flattening of the profile of vegetarians within socio-economic groupings. This supports the trend towards a mainstream market positioning for vegetarian foods, having originally held a niche and AB position, strengthened by ever wider product ranges and distribution through major multiple retailers.

For More Information Please Click : http://www.bharatbook.com/detail.asp?id=10502