Soup market in Australia is poised to continue its growing momentum in the next five years, finds a new survey by UK-based research firm Canadean - Food.
According to the report 'The Soups Market in Australia, to 2016', the country's overall industry is forecast to grow by 5.09% in 2016 over 2011, when it posted 3.07% increase over 2006.
The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the overall soups market of Australia is set to grow significantly by more than 62% during 2011-2016 at 0.99% over 2006-11 when it was 0.61%.
Among the segments, canned/ambient soup is the only sector likely to continue the declining tendency, both in terms of CAGR and market value.
While the CAGR of the segment is expected to be at -1.38% during 2011-16 compared to -1.31% in the previous five-year period, its market value has plunged from 61.7% in 2006 to 56.1% in 2011 and likely to go down further to 49.8% in 2016.
All the remaining segments, comprising chilled soup, dried soup (mixes), frozen soup and UHT soup, have experienced a nominal improvement in their growth rate as well as market value in the review period and likely to continue the momentum in the forecast period.
Although canned/ambient soup continues to be the market leader in the Australian soup industry in terms of value, Canadean survey observed a growing fondness by Australians towards dried soup (mixes).
Dried soup (mixes), being the second largest segment, has accounted for 33% market share in 2011 over 28.5% in 2006 and is all set to improve its share further to 38%, thereby bringing the dominance of canned/ambient soup in the country.
As per the survey, the growth trend has continued even in volume terms by 5% in 2011 over 2006 and by more than 7% in 2016 over 2011.
The increasing importance for dried soup (mixes) in Australia is clearly witnessed in volume share, which had dethroned canned/ambient soup segment from the top spot in 2011.
Canned/ambient soup, which was the market leader in 2006 with about 48% share, had lost its market to dried soup (mixes) in 2011, allowing the latter to become the major segment with more than half of the industry share.
Canadean forecasts that dried soup (mixes) would continue to lead the market even by 2016 with close to 56% share, while canned/ambient soup is likely to manage 36.4% by then.
