COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the food and beverages industry by increasing the consumption of wide range of processed food and ready to eat drinks such as packed fruit juices owing to health benefits associated with them. Quarantine and extended lockdown has impacted considerably in Europe, Americas and all over world and it has been created an opportunity due to their demand because of raised awareness regarding health and increased concern for maintaining immunity and thereby well-being of health.
Fresh fruits are rich source of vitamin A, B, C mineral such as calcium, iron and flavonoids. Thus, they help to boosts overall health, reduce risk of disease and detoxify the body which are essential for well-being of health. Owing to these healthy benefits, packed fruits have witnessed stable growth in pandemic. Packed fruits juice provides proper amount of nutrition which are easy to consume and they are available in packs which are easy to carry.
For instance,
- Tetra pack of apple juice contains lower calories which are help to strengthen immunity. Fruit juice sales have witnessing stable growth in this pandemic.
Manufacturers of packed fruit juices are focusing on the production of fruits juices. They particularly include orange and apple owing to their availability in market. From an importers point of view, before lockdown, apple and oranges were available as their production generally occurs in October. Thus, fruits juice manufacturers were more prone towards availability of this fruits has provide more demand in terms of fruits juice.
Thailand is main producer of pineapple. Owing to this, pandemic, supply chain disruption causes shortage in availability of raw material. However, the demand for packed pineapple juice has witnessing raising demand as Europe has brought additional inventories which are providing processing of raw material for fruit juice production.
In Europe the COVID-19 outbreak has witnessed increased demand for pineapple juice. Therefore, Europe's fruit juice market witnessed steady growth by 2020. As this pandemic phase will last for months, consumers are more cautious in purchasing and ultimately search for products of immediate need, especially for consumption, in terms of longer shelf life. The intake of 100% orange juice is associated with several dietary and health benefits for children and adults, according to the published report of 'Frontiers Nutrition 2020.'
Further, many manufacturers of packed fruits juices manufacturers are reforming their strategies to set on rising of fruits juices consumption and thereby grab opportunity to enhanced focus on health and wellness.
For instance,
- In these challenging pandemic times, Dabur, one of India's major food & beverage industry leaders, has adopted a 'two-pronged strategy' for its juice sector. Company has re-purposed brand marketing to highlight the immunity advantages of the company's real fruit juices and on the other side; company has introduced new juices that improve immunity. New releases include Amla Plus, Aloe-Kiwi juice and the ready-to-drink Masala Sugarcane juice.
Pandemic is also driving an interest of consumer towards purchasing immunity boosting and higher protein content products. In the U.S., 93% of consumers are planning to increase their healthy juice consumption. This has impacted on the demand for packed fruits juices.
According to the latest study of University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Food and Resource Economics Department, orange juice has becoming popular in the pandemic. There was 50.7% demand for orange juice was estimated in April 2020. Thus, demand for fruit juices is witnessing stable demand in pandemic.
INITIATIVES
“In-home consumption of packaged juices has come back to its normal levels, in line with the growing consumer need for health. However, the overall juice market continues to be impacted by the sharp dip in out-of-home consumption with closure of local eating-and-drinking outlets and the HORECA channel (Hotels, restaurants and caterers) remaining closed.”
- Mohit Malhotra, CEO, Dabur India, told BusinessLine
“During the last 2-3 months we have also seen consumers looking for products that offer benefits and buy into brands that are able to provide this authentically. Minute Maid is our fruit nutrition brand, which has a range of products that offer nutrition that consumers seek,”
- T Krishnakumar, President, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia
“The juice segment is naturally anchored in the health and nutrition space as consumers’ focus on health and wellness has got more enhanced and nuanced due to the pandemic. We are witnessing traction for multi-packs as consumers stay at home. In-home consumption will be the way forward and the new normal for the segment,”
- Yogesh Bellani, CEO, FieldFresh Foods Pvt. Ltd
“A lot of the consumers that previously may have had barriers or reasons not to leverage digital technology are now doing so for everyday tasks like grocery shopping in a way they’ve never done before,” COVID-19 drove an interest in immunity-boosting products and content, leading to a 34 percent increase of people drinking OJ. Of that group, 93 percent of consumers either plan to increase their consumption or continue drinking the same amount.”
- Ashley Robinson, AgNet Media Communications Intern in Gainesville, Florida.
“Coca-Cola India has announced the launch of two new products under its 13-year-old brand Minute Maid — Vita Punch and Nutri Force — as the company looks to build up its “Delightful Fruit Nutrition” category. The two products will be rolled out on 15th August 2020, the company said in a virtual event on Tuesday. Both of these products are fruit juices. While Coca-Cola India claims that Vita Punch will fulfill 100% of daily Vitamin C requirements, the Nutri Force juice comes with soluble iron and claims to improve cognitive ability of children.”
- T Krishnakumar, President, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia
“During cold and flu season the demand for orange juice typically rises, as people seek a dose of vitamin C to help prevent illness. Now with residents being ordered to stay home, orange industry experts are projecting that Americans will be looking for ways to get vitamin C again by drinking more orange juice.”
- CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual Mike Sparks told AccuWeather Multimedia Journalist Bill Wadell.
"The unforeseen and significant increase in the demand for orange juice exceeded the current supply of orange juice on the U.S. market in recent weeks of April 2020”. Sales jumped nearly 10% in the four weeks that ended March 14 compared with a year earlier. Frozen orange juice sales soared 27%. That's a big turnaround from the prior report for February, which showed overall orange juice sales down 2% and frozen juice down 1.3%.”
- Marisa Zansler, Director of Economic and Market Research at the Florida Department of Citrus
CONCLUSION
Fruits juice manufacturers have been considerably impacted by raised consumption and awareness regarding health in pandemic. Quarantine, social distancing across multiple nations, reduced social gatherings has impacted on the demand ready to eat and easy to consumed healthy supplements. Many of fruit juice manufacturers are taking significant initiatives for healthy drinks to higher extent. These manufacturers have been seeing a constant sale in their products and stability in demand during the coming months of this fiscal year.
Packed fruit juices are majorly consumed as healthy ready to eat drink health demanded by health conscious people, athletes and sport person. There have been vast changes in the consumption pattern among pet food which are particularly “at-home” has been gaining popularity. Though, there has been a stable growth in demand for fruits juices, the purchasing behavior among consumers have greatly disrupted the distribution channels for these products.
Also, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, there has been a growing awareness among people; the demand for immunity booster through ready to drink juices has been increased. Protein, vitamin and other essential ingredients in fruit juices is anticipated to grow substantially during the coming years, with the rising awareness. Thus, the impact of pandemic has been neutral for the packed fruit juice industry across the globe and hence, a stable growth can be observed in the in industry during coming years, with many opportunities of new products development for the manufacturers.
Impact of pandemic on food services industry has providing an opportunity to manufacturers to provides consumer-packaged goods (CPGs) with safety standards. Ready to drinks products are manufactured with maintaining safety and security of employees, suppliers, retail partners. In addition, e commerce is providing better opportunity to the fruits juice manufacturers to reach out consumer with safety standards. Among others, Walmart, Instacart and Amazon have made considerable investments in capacity for fulfillment and distribution.
