Category Archives: CFER News

The beverage industry is pushing forward at a quick pace and top developments in the field during 2019 should still be oriented for the rise of natural, functional and sustainable drinks; however, consumers are seeking increased value chain transparency and beverage personalization. Discover below some of the top tendencies for 2019 within the drinks business.

CFER Labs is your partner in drinks R&D. Obtain your free of charge workplan by clicking here.

Healthy energy drinks with alternative sources of energy

Energy drinks are one of the fastest growing products in the global drinks market. This growth has been brought by an escalating evident consumer focus on fitness and health. In 2017, the global energy drinks market stood at USD 55 billion and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.7% during the forecasted period of 2018-2023, according to figures from Mordor Intelligence. The biggest oportunities for market growth lie in the European continent and in Asia-Pacific region, respectively due to a scarce offer of healthy, zero-calorie, low sugar functional drinks in Europe and increasing income, rising sports activities and urbanization in the Asia-Pacific region.

The caffeine presence in energy drinks is raising moderate levels of concern. As a result, manufacturers may wish to gradually replace caffeine by naturally energetic plant extracts in new launches for 2019, such as green coffee extract or matcha.

The caffeine presence in energy drinks may gradually be replaced by naturally energetic plant extracts in new launches for 2019.

Hyper functional drinks with ethnic and regional ingredients

According to Beverage Daily, consumers are increasingly willing to seek super ingredients in their drinks, such as goji, aloe vera, turmeric, functional spices or matcha, traditionally used as regional ethnic ingredients with known health benefits. Other ingredients, such as microalgae and mushroom extract are also gaining relevance. Consumers will look for convenient, hyper functional drinks during 2019 as part of a beverage industry gradually mixed with the vitamin and supplement industry.

New launches will reflect consumer demand for overall wellness goals, as improved sleep, cognitive function, beauty, weight loss and gut health, being expectable that new products will address deeper health issues as oral and cardiovascular health.

Consumers are increasingly willing to seek super ingredients in their drinks, such as goji, aloe vera, turmeric, functional spices or matcha.

Plant based beverages

More and more people are introducing plant-based products in their diet for health and sustainability claims. Plant based product claims have grown 62% globally from 2013 to 2017, according to figures from NDP Group. The plant-based eating and drinking movement has been promoted by celebrities, athletes, multinational retailers, food and tech companies and countries such as China. There has been a 600% increase in people identifying as vegans in the U.S in the last three years, according to a survey from GlobalData, and 350% in the UK comparing to ten years ago. According to Nielsen, vegetarianism in Portugal rose by 400% in the last decade.

In 2019 there should be a rise in the offer of plant based drinks, such as vegetable milks and drinks from soy, almond, coconut and oats, plant-based protein drinks and also exotically-flavoured malted beverages.

Almond drink leads the category of vegetable milks along with soy and coconut.

Sustainable beverages

Sustainability is growing steadily to be one of the top concerns of consumers in 2019. This is mainly related to plastic unsustainability due to recent environmental scandals and the origin and trade of ingredients. Data from Nielsen and Mintel indicates that consumers are willing to pay more for products that make claims on sustainability, while Imbibe Magazine states that consumers are using the social media to share messages about the responsibility of the purchase. Eco-friendly packaged beverages and the use of internationally certified fair-trade ingredients should become more prevalent in 2019.

Concerns regarding the origin and trade of the ingredients are becoming more prevalent among consumers.

Clean label and simple communication

Consumers are demanding clean labels and a simple communication on their products to know what exactly they consume and at what level, and national government agencies are supporting this interest. In 2019 this trend should continue to gain momentum.

The soft drinks market has witnessed in recent years the biggest percentage of clean label product introduction in Asia, the fastest growth rate region for clean label products. Within the clean label segment, natural colours are witnessing high demand due to organic and functional claims.

According to figures from Mordor Intelligence, 88% of consumers are willing to pay a premium price for products containing naturally sourced ingredients, and close to 80% of the consumers give importance to reading ingredient lists on the product before purchasing.

The trend for clean label beverages will predictably continue to grow during 2019.

CFER Labs is your partner in drinks R&D. Obtain your free of charge workplan by clicking here.

Sources
https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/energy-drinks-market
https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/clean-label-ingredients-market
HTTPS://WWW.BEVERAGEDAILY.COM/ARTICLE/2018/12/05/TOP-FIVE-PREDICTIONS-FOR-2019-BEVERAGE-TRENDS
https://foodrevolution.org/blog/vegan-statistics-global/

 

Apple cider is a drink mostly associated with Europe and the United States. While it is growing in popularity all over the world, mostly as a naturally gluten free and refreshing alcoholic drink, South America still remains as a mostly unknown market for apple cider.

Scott Jones is a Peru-based English cider maker, one of the first cider makers in the continent and currently the Peruvian cider market leader. In this interview, Scott approached how he started his cider journey, the pros and cons of exploring a virgin market and the challenges for the future.

Hi Scott. Thank you very much for your time for this interview. So, you are the current market leader in the Peruvian cider scene. How did it all start?

Hello, thank you very much for the invite. Well, having taught English in South America for 4 years since 2010, I decided to stay in Peru for longer. The easiest way I could do this was to obtain a business visa, and so I started to think about which type of business I would like to start here. The market for craft beer was in its infancy but growing steadily, but being a cider drinker from the south of England, I didn’t really appreciate the craft beer scene and had been missing cider from home; conversations over beers with expats had often covered what would make a good business, and making cider always seemed to come up time and time again. So the seed had been sown a couple years before I was in a position to consider it as a viable business.

Having decided to start the first cider company in Peru (and probably most South American countries) I took out a bank loan from the UK and wired over to Peru. I immediately discovered how running a business in Peru was going to be, and that was difficult, frustrating and illogical. So the first hurdle was that I couldn’t open a bank account without a visa, but I couldn’t start the visa process without depositing money in a Peruvian account (to show you have funds to open a business) – this would be one of many hurdles I had to overcome to open and run a business as a foreigner in Peru.

Apple cider is enjoying a remarkable growth in world markets, motivated by its low alcohol and natural profile.

Well, we can see that was not an easy start.

Not at all. Once I received my business visa the next problem was to source machinery to produce the cider. The most important machine was a mill to pulp the apple and this had to made from scratch. I paid well above the average for this which was what is known as ‘gringo’ price, I’d soon get used to negociating hard on most prices. I was very lucky to hear about a stainless steel fabricator that made in bottle carbonating machines. The machine was a design rip off of machines that could be found for around the same price in Europe or the US, importing anything into Peru is problematic and high import taxes, so I was happy to pay what would be the same price as Europe or US and not have the headache and stress of importing.

Using my previous Engineering experience I designed and built a sturdy rack and press, and having found a small place to rent I was ready to start production. My first attempt was 300kg of dessert apples, I managed to squeeze 230 litres, and using ‘craft cider making’ book by Andrew Lea I produced my first batch of cider without too many problems.

Who were your first costumers? Was it easy to convince them to consume a Peruvian cider?

My main market to begin with was the expat community and expat owned bars and restaurant, sales were slow as the price point was quite high, so the Peruvian market wasn’t willing to pay the high price and risk the possibility of not liking it. In the first year or two it was mainly expats and tourists consuming my cider.

What about now? How was the market growth?

Having grown my business steadily over 4 years, the demand is now high, there are now other small cider producers in the marketplace but total sales are still low compared to the craft beer scene, which is now saturated with the opening of more and more breweries.

When looking at other countries, like the US or Europe, once the craft beer scene explodes and then becomes saturated, cider then has a boom, I’m guessing 2019 will be the year of cider in Peru.

We hope 2019 is indeed the year of cider in Peru.

Hope so, I believe chances are quite high.


What about your ciders? What is their profile?
At the moment I have 5 different types, a dry, medium and sweet, and also a strawberry and passion fruit flavoured ciders, all made with freshly pressed apples and real fruits the artisan way (this means by hand as I still can’t afford expensive equipment !). The dry, medium and passion fruit are the best sellers. All of them are branded as Oltree Cider.
Oltree is the brand crafted by Scott Jones to enter the Peruvian market – there are currently 5 different types available.

Brilliant. What would you say are the main challenges for the future?

The challenges for the future are big money investors opening more commercial style cideries, my plan is to keep at a medium sized production (less than 50,000 litres a year) and keep the artisan spirit of trying different styles and flavours.

We hope it all goes for the best, and also that your experience might inspire new cider makers all over the world to start their businesses. We know it is certainly not easy.

It is definitely not, but it is worth it. My advice is not giving up, adversities will come but in the end it pays off.

Thank you for your time for this interview with CFER, cheers!

Thank you too, cheers!

CFER Labs