16 Aug Asia advances in the organic food market
The growing demand for organic and sustainable products in Asia is due to the increase in the knowledge of methods of organic production, at the same time that people have more money to invest into food. Similarly, Asian consumers, like those of the rest of the world, are more conscious about food safety and quality. In this way, the Asian market of organic products brings even more investors to the continent since its market is ready to assume a high growth in the coming years.
Peter Drysdale, Emeritus Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University, Head of the East Asian Bureau on Economic Research and Editor-in-Chief of East Asia Forum, already highlighted it in the 2017 APEC: Asia-Pacific, claiming that Asia is a key factor in the world economy and the center of attention of the industrial world.
Ecological producers
But Asia not only focuses on food import and not only consumers are looking for organic products. Evidenced by the figures of the study prepared by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) on statistics and trends of organic agriculture in the world.
The producers are also aware of the boom. The number of organic producers grew to 71,000 in 2013, until approaching the 2,000,000, which represented a 3.7% growth compared to data from 2012. The region with more farmers devoted to this activity was Asia with 730,744. It is not surprising, given that in Asia there are 2’8 million hectares certified as organic, that China is the first country in the world with the largest certified area with 1’4 million hectares.
Asia’s juice market
Right now, the star product of the Asian market are the drinks with seeds. The number of new product introductions with any type of seed as an ingredient have increased year after year. From less than 1% of total new juice launches in 2013, to over 2% in 2016, according to Mintel Global New Products Database.
Although basil seeds are the most common seeds for now in the Asian market, chia seeds are beginning to grow in the community. An article by Mintel, explains very well the growth of this type of beverage. They affirm that the region is already accustomed to the texture of these types of juices and, therefore, Asia has an optimistic future in this organic sector that now is growing all over the world.
Gold Foods USA foresees that the organic market will maintain a sustained growth for the coming years and Asia shows opportunities for this sector, as the demand and the interest in organic products are constantly growing.
