A new report on the market for fruit and vegetable juices finds that while dollar sales and consumption of juice drinks has since 2007 remained stagnant, consumers are increasingly embracing new and innovative juice products and flavors – and mainstream retailers are paying attention.The report, published by market research firm Packaged Facts, stated that over the last five years, consumption of regular orange juice has declined by 3.6 percent while that of frozen orange juices has slid by 14.7 percent. In the meantime, health and wellness trends and consumer marketing about healthier lifestyles have pushed the growth of juice bars and smoothie chains, and in turn, given way to the rise of new premium and super premium juice products.
And while natural and specialty retailers were once the exclusive domain for innovative and exotic juices, traditional grocers are now stocking their shelves with a range of coconut waters, blended juice drinks and “superfruit” smoothies. Packaged Facts expects the trend of mainstream retail adoption of these products to continue as the demand for healthy juice drinks continues to grow.
Along these lines, Packaged Facts forecasts that three factors that are likely to lead and accelerate growth in the juice market, despite weak momentum in recent years.
• The increase in the number of large households as a result of the rise in the population of multicultural consumers will have a disproportionate impact upon growth in the overall market for juices and juice drinks.
• An intensive effort by juice marketers to introduce a broader array of low-calorie products based on safe alternatives to sugar in response to consumer concerns about the high sugar content of their products by
• Marketers will continue to innovate and launch new, premium, high-profit, better-for-you juice products that attract health-conscious millennials and baby boomers seeking out the latest flavor fad.
