MENA confectionery market sees 16% sales growth by 2014
Published: Aug 19, 2010 23:28 Updated: Aug 19, 2010 23:28
DUBAI: The confectionery market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is expected to witness a sales growth of 16 percent by 2014, according to a report on Thursday.
Last year, the region recorded a 10 percent increase in confectionery sales to $6.6 billion over the previous year, revealed the Euromonitor International.
"Confectionery is still an extremely fast-growing sector in the Middle East," said Trixee Loh, senior vice-president of the Dubai World Trade Centre, which is organizing the Sweets & Snacks Middle East exhibition in October.
While the UAE's confectionery market had grown 94.7 percent since 2004, the sector recorded 19.6 percent growth in the United States, 40.3 percent in China and 18.6 percent in the UK, the market research firm said.
"The UAE was outpacing many of its global counterparts because it was less saturated than mature markets," said Gayatri Bhasin, Euromonitor's research analyst for MENA.
Globally, the confectionery market grew at a compound annual growth rate of 3.3 percent between 2004 and 2009, with chocolate sector accounting for a share of 49.8 percent, according to an earlier Datamonitor report. Leading players in global confectionery market include Mars, Cadbury and Nestle, it added.
The Euromonitor International earlier put the global confectionery sales at about $162.54 billion for the year 2009, accounting for almost nine percent of the global packaged food market. Over the five years from 2004, the compound annual growth rate for candy was 5.7 percent.
The Middle East is among the top ten markets for confectionery products in the world, with a high per capita consumption of chocolate in particular, the research firm said.
According to a study by TNS Media Intelligence, the total Middle East confectionery market is valued at $113 billion, and the market has grown by 15 percent over the last few years, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar experiencing the largest growth at around 24 percent.
Such growth is attributed to greater disposable income per capita, the influence of the region's enormous population of young consumers, and the traditional role of sweets in Arab culture, the study added.
Despite fluctuations in the region's economy, over the next decade confectionery sales are forecast to increase by 15-20 percent, according to the TNS Media Intelligence.
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