Top 4 Food & Beverage Industry Trends In 2021

The new norm in 2020 has shifted consumers’ behaviors from offline to online. Most industries, especially the food & beverage and agriculture industry has been adapting to the new norm & started growing throughout the pandemic.

What happened to the F&B industry during the pandemic?

Consumers’ are more focused on convenience. Purchasing behavior and habits are changing towards healthy, natural, environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Let’s take a look at the top 4 F&B and Agricultural Industry trends on Alibaba.com!

1. Plant-based food

Plant-based eating trends have been growing since 2020, eventually leading to an increase in consumption of plant-based food all around the world. Fast food restaurants like KFC Malaysia has launched their “Zero Chicken Burger” in 2020 and they managed to sell 1 million burgers in one month! Source

Beyond Meat and Impossible foods are the most common brands that produce plant-based food. Let’s look at the plant-based food sales vs total food retail sales in April 2020.

2. An increase in fresh and frozen product consumption

Other than plant-based food, there is also an increase in fresh and frozen product consumption due to consumers stocking up foods during the pandemic. Consumers bought extra during this time to avoid multiple grocery trips.

Find out what frozen foods the Malaysian consumers have been stocking up below!

Source

3. “Premiumization”

Premiumization is spending extra money on premium products.

As consumers are unable to spend money travelling, “self-care” and “treat yourself” mentalities continue to grow in popularity during the pandemic. During this time, consumers have started to pamper and treat themselves with premium foods.

4. Increase in demand for spices and condiments

During the pandemic, consumers are picking up cooking skills at home. Therefore, the demand for spices and condiments have increased.

“In fact, the first quarter of 2020 saw a 67% year-on-year increase in ingredient and condiment sales on Alibaba.com.”- Alibaba.com

However, spices and condiments demand will not sustain long for the B2C market as B2B manufacturers nowadays tend to produce cooked frozen food, such as pre-marinated meats packaged and frozen for retail sale. Frozen cooked food is popular because it is easy & convenient to prepare, which is why it is more likely to increase in demand in 2021. 

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