ONCE an exotic treat, Chinese and Indian meals are pretty much a staple part of the average UK family’s home menus these days, but adventurous shoppers are still looking for new tastes.
According to market analyst Key Note, Japanese, Vietnamese and Middle Eastern foods all recorded growth in 2013 and it predicts that demand for South American, South African and Eastern European foods will grow in the next five years.
In its latest market report on ethnic foods, Key Note reported that in 2013 the market, including rice, grew by 3.2% from 2012.
That was the fourth consecutive year of growth. And it forecasts growth of 14.8% between 2014 and 2018.
The report highlighted convenience as very important to ethnic foods sales and said: “The increasing number of single-person households and the gradual decline of family mealtimes are two influential factors in this.
“Products need to be able to compete with the extreme convenience offered by the home-delivery sector.
“Ready meals, cooking sauces and recipe kits are all established and varyingly convenient mealtime options.”
According to Key Note’s figures ethnic food sales were worth £1.52bn in 2013, which was an increase of 18.3% from 2009.
Indian food was worth £583m in 2013 following modest growth of 0.8% from the previous year and 3.8% from 2009.
Chinese food was worth £330m showing growth of 1.6% from the previous year and 7.1% over five years.
Mexican and Tex-Mex sales increased by £3.5% to £181.5m in 2013, up 17.1% since 2009. That value was 11.9% of the whole ethnic foods sector.
Thai food was up 28.2% and Caribbean was up 37.9% from 2009 values.
Key Note predicts that demand for high-quality, convenient ethnic food products will continue to grow over the next five years.
It added: “The ethnic foods sector is projected to be worth £1.82bn by 2018. This will be driven by growth in all sub-sectors, but especially by smaller categories such as Thai food.
“The Indian and Chinese sub-sectors will remain the largest in the market, despite regularly being outperformed by less-established cuisines.”
