Despite the US healthy foods market keeping pace with overall food industry growth in 2009, annual growth rates have continued to slip for the category, according to a new report from Nutrition Business Journal (NBJ).
Healthy foods have seen their star “dull and tarnish” in the protracted economic malaise, NBJ said in its 2010 Healthy Foods Report.
However, recent data suggests the dip may have hit the bottom, prompting NBJ to predict growth rates to improve modestly in coming years.
“As growth takes meaningful hold, healthy foods should increase their share of the total US foods market, reaching 23 per cent penetration by 2017,” the report indicated.
“The trends toward natural and organic food and beverages as safer and healthier consumer choices remain particularly strong.”
NBJ predicts that natural and organic foods will grow the fastest of any healthy foods categories in the next eight years – with growth of organic reaching nearly 10 per cent in 2012 – as product categories like organic fruits and vegetables and natural meat, fish and poultry sidle into the mainstream.
“Functional and lesser-evil foods” will lose market share to the natural and organic categories in the future, NBJ estimates, though functional should retain about a quarter of healthy food sales over the next eight years
“With a forecast compound growth rate of nearly 9 per cent, organic foods are expected to be the biggest competitor in healthy foods for the future,” NBJ revealed.
“Compound annual growth for the total healthy foods industry should hover above 5 per cent for the next eight years, just outpacing the growth of its largest categories, functional and lesser-evil foods.”
The total US food market grew by 1.6 per cent in 2009, according to NBJ, achieving sales of US$628bn, while healthy foods sales rose by 1.8 per cent to some US$143bn.
