Asia Pacific

Cooking ingredients and meals has almost completely recovered from the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2023. At the same time, it is being affected by geopolitical changes in the region caused by the war in Ukraine. In 2023, inflation in…

The cooking ingredients and meals industry in Pakistan is navigating a challenging landscape shaped by inflationary pressures. As inflation rises, consumers are becoming increasingly price-sensitive, prompting a shift towards more cost-effective…

Consumers continued to dine out more often in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis in 2023 as the return to busy lifestyles left them with limited time to cook from scratch at home and drove down in-home consumption. However, consumers continued to…

The cooking ingredients and meals market in Kazakhstan has almost fully recovered from the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, inflation in the country slowed and prices declined in a number of categories compared to 2022, including…

In 2023, a surge in living costs has driven price increases of 20-60% in cooking ingredients. As a result, demand has declined, especially among lower-middle-income consumers. To combat this, manufacturers have been focusing on smaller packs. On a…

Cooking ingredients and meals is witnessing greater stability in 2023 following the price shocks of 2022, which created much upheaval for the category. There was a significant increase in prices across the cooking ingredients and meals category in…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the charge card category declined significantly due to restrictions on all activities such as traveling, dining and entertainment, which impacted normal patterns of expenditure. In the post-pandemic era, consumers have…

Charge cards continue to struggle to appeal widely, and consumer demand is set to remain relatively low at the end of the review period. This situation is confirmed by the limited supply of charge cards from banking institutions in Malaysia. Indeed,…

Healthy eating trends are influencing sweet sauces, such as seen with the rising popularity of nut and seed based spreads, as evidenced by the subcategory showing the most robust value growth and with volume also on an upwards trajectory. A further…

Sweet spreads is benefitting from consumers’ return to out-of-home lifestyles, notably with children back to school and employees back to work. In this sense, chocolate spreads and nut and seed based spreads are seeing healthy volume and value…

Alongside the home café trend, a notable shift has occurred in bakery products, transcending the long-held bias that bread cannot serve as a meal replacement - often referred to as the “breadcrumbs prejudice”. This shift emphasises the savoury,…

In 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding lockdown measures, which affected consumers’ in-store shopping, and led to disruptions in product transportation for e-commerce platforms, sweet spreads experienced retail volume and current…

Store cards are often referred to as “Gaisho cards” in Japan. Gaisho is a department most often found in department stores, positioned somewhat like direct selling. Gaisho are elite staff members with high levels of skill and experience, and these…

The reduced-salt trend, as backed by the government, is influencing patterns in sauces, dips, and condiments. According to reports from the Ministry of Health, Vietnamese consumers are cited to eat an average of 9.4g per day of salt, compared to the…

Whilst consumers have indeed been returning to foodservice channels, a trend for home-cooking maintains, thus supporting sales in sauces, dips, and condiments – in both value and volume terms. Various sauces and bouillon are popular ingredients in…

Post-pandemic, packaged food players are making efforts to meet various consumer needs due to the increasing preference for home-cooked meals. This movement involves developing and launching multiple food products in various formats. For example,…

In 2023, sauces, dips and condiments is set to turn to decline in retail volume and current value terms. This is primarily due to the Chinese government’s lifting of the zero-COVID policy in 2022. With no more lockdown measures in place, consumers’…

The performance of pre-paid cards is supported by the growth of e-commerce – notably since the era of the pandemic. In fact, prior to 2020, transaction numbers in pre-paid cards were showing a negative performance, in sharp contrast to what is seen…

Despite the rise of digital wallets, physical credit cards and pre-paid cards still play a significant role in payments. Notably, digital wallets often cannot link to popular pre-paid cards like EasyCard, the largest transportation card in Taiwan,…

In the review period, pre-paid cards showed progression to online (mobile, smart watch, etc...) payment, especially within transportation pre-paid cards such as Suica and PASMO cards. More people opted to use smartphone app versions of pre-paid cards…