Source: freepik
来源:FDL数食主张(ID:foodatalink)
Author: Father of Wasabi
Prune, mandarin, sea buckthorn...... The juice category is back in popularity, and the vitality is unabated
Expand categories, dig raw materials, expand channels, and make changes in juice categories.
In recent years, the beverage market has been fiercely competitive, new products have iterated rapidly, and new and old brands have taken turns to fight.
According to the 2022 China Shopper Report, Series 2, jointly released by Kantar Worldpanel and Bain & Company, juice was the fastest-growing beverage sales segment from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022, with an increase of 22%.
Since 2023, fruit juice as a basic ingredient is still very popular in the industry, and the demand in the consumer market is still strong. Beverage giants such as Coca-Cola, Yuanqi Forest, Uni-President and Huiyuan have actively laid out the juice track and launched various new fruit juice products one after another.
On the juice track, the competition between established beverage giants and new beverage brands is fierce, and today's players are working real materials and juice content, and there are also players digging deep into novel raw materials and promoting niche juices, such as hawthorn, prune, sea buckthorn, blueberry, small lime, etc., which have performed well in the past year, which have become popular on social media.
Based on this, today FDL Digital Food advocates taking you to "taste" the juices on the market. As a volatile and growing category, how does fruit juice iterate, what are the new trends at present, and what are the development trends in the future?
1. Start: From "good drink" to "good drink"
Fruit juice refers to a beverage made from fruit through physical methods such as pressing, centrifugation, extraction, etc. According to the process mode, fruit juice is divided into freshly squeezed, processed, and cold-pressed juice. Among them, freshly squeezed juice is strictly defined, emphasizing freshly squeezed and drunk, and mostly appears in the wide application of home-made and freshly made tea.
According to the fruit juice content, the common fruit juice drinks on the market are mainly divided into three categories: low-strength fruit juice, medium-strength fruit juice, and pure fruit juice. Among them, the juice content in low-strength fruit juice drinks is less than 20%, the juice content in medium-strength fruit juice drinks is 20%-99%, and the juice content of pure fruit juice drinks is 100%.
Source: freepik
In mainland China, affected by multiple factors such as dietary consumption habits, fruit planting structure and production technology, the juice beverage industry has undergone an evolution from a decentralized stage to a high-end market positioning.
According to public information, in the 90s of the 20th century, the mainland fruit juice beverage market was in the initial stage of development, showing a high degree of dispersion, and the representative enterprises mainly included Huiyuan, which mainly focused on orange juice, Rumeng, which focused on flavored juice, and Coconut Tree, Coconut Wind, etc., which focused on coconut water drinks.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Uni-President took the lead in launching the "Uni-President Multi-Juice" series in China, including low-strength fruit juice drinks with flavors such as orange, mango, grape and peach, with a market share of more than 20% at one time.
After the unified product won market popularity, many beverage brands have followed up, such as Coca-Cola launched the "Queer Series" drink, Master Kong launched the "Daily C Series" low-strength fruit juice drinks, in addition, Yangshengtang, Huiyuan and other old fruit juice companies have also joined the competition for the market share of low and medium strength juice, which has prompted the mainland juice market to continuously enrich the product variety, taste and concentration of more diversified.
With the continuous improvement of the economy and living standards, the juice beverage category is also evolving and differentiating. In 2012, the new consumer brand represented by Lingdu Guofang entered the non-concentrated reduced (NFC) juice market, which officially opened the prelude to the development of the domestic NFC juice industry and promoted the transformation of China's juice market to high-end.
According to the "2023-2028 China Fruit Juice Beverage Industry Market Development Environment and Investment Trend Analysis Report" released by the China Research Institute of Puhua Industry Research Institute, the market size of the mainland juice industry has been relatively stable in recent years, increasing from 111.85 billion yuan in 2017 to 127.20 billion yuan in 2020, with an average annual compound growth rate of 4.4%. With the further penetration of the fruit juice beverage market, it is predicted that the market size of the mainland fruit juice beverage industry will reach 137.58 billion yuan by 2022.
2. Challenges: Consumers do not love it, and the market competition is fierce
In the course of the development of beverages in mainland China, the initial role of beverages was to meet consumers' demand for taste, and the emergence of fruit juice also enriched consumers' taste choices to a certain extent.
But in fact, the consumption of fruit juice drinks in mainland China has been low.
On the one hand, due to the influence of food culture and living habits, fruit juice does not seem to have become an indispensable choice in the beverage category for Chinese consumers, from offline restaurants to family tables.
The data show that compared with simply eating fruits, the consumption of fruit and fruit juice is 10 times different, 2.5 times in the United States and 4.6 times in Japan; in terms of consumption, the average annual consumption of fruit juice by Chinese is actually less than 1 kg, which is 1/10 of the world average and 1/40 of the average of developed countries.
On the other hand, with the continuous improvement of consumers' health awareness and the change of consumption structure, people's demand for beverages is also escalating, and those sweet juices that only provide pleasant taste can no longer meet the healthy and diversified needs of consumers.
According to a research report published by Beverage Industry, there has been a long-term "identity crisis" in juice products. Such products oscillate between wellness and indulgence, and the lack of a clear market positioning confuses consumers, resulting in a difficult juice market.
Especially in the rapid rise of functional drinks, sugar-free tea, sparkling water, new tea, coffee and other emerging beverages, it has seized the needs of young people for "original taste", healthy and less sugar, and higher appearance, squeezed out the beverage market space, and further made fruit juice drinks in a "dispensable" position.
In the face of new consumer trends and market difficulties, the juice industry urgently needs to seek new exports.
3. Innovation: How does juice rise against the trend?
Fruit juices are naturally fresh and therefore have stringent requirements in terms of raw materials, production, transport and storage conditions. Therefore, it is not easy to make a good juice product.
However, challenges often go hand in hand with opportunities, and difficulties can also lead to innovation in the industry.
In today's day and age, consumers are labeled as "both want and want": they are not only looking for great taste, but also for health, and at the same time expect a great shopping experience. In today's FMCG industry, where the FMCG industry is already a red ocean, how brands continue to capture the emerging and unmet needs of consumers, and how latecomers can effectively reach consumers and occupy their minds has become a breakthrough to create explosive products.
Some brands with a keen sense of smell have already detected the needs of the market and found innovative development paths, such as upgrading traditional fruit juices and integrating fresh juices with new tea drinks, or making a fuss about fruit raw materials and functions to upgrade the health and functionality of niche juices...... A variety of fruit juice categories are "blooming".
- Juice grasps the concentration parameters and makes multi-dimensional innovations
(1) Concentration attack 100%
Nowadays, more and more brands are catering to consumer demand for high-purity and freshness juice products, and high-strength fruit juice drinks continue to show their potential against the trend.
According to Mintel's 2023 China Juice Market Trend Insight Report, 63% of the factors influencing consumers' choice of fruit and vegetable juice are concentration content factors and 55% variety factors.
According to Mintel's global new product database, from 2019 to 2023, fruit juice is the top three categories of new product activity in China's non-alcoholic beverage market, and new product claims mainly revolve around "health".
In the face of such consumer demand, juice brands are looking for a way out in zero sugar, concentration, and functionalization.
Case:
Re.juve Cold-Pressed Juice offers Beat Guava and Green Guava, which abandon the heaviness of traditional guava and extract the light and refreshing essence of cold-pressed guava. Sourced from a crystal guava farm in Indonesia, this juice is made from 100% organic vegetables and fresh fruits with no added concentrates, sugar, water or preservatives.
A 250ml bottle of Beat Guava and Green Guava contains the recommended daily intake of vitamin C for the body, along with about 28% of the dietary fibre requirement, as well as essential nutrients such as manganese and vitamins B6, B9 and K, which additionally support wound healing, DNA repair and cell growth.
Source: Re.juve
(2) NFC juice grew against the trend
When it comes to consistency, NFC juice naturally comes to mind. Compared with the overall fluctuation of the juice market, the retail volume and market size of NFC juice drinks in mainland China have continued to show a growth trend in recent years.
According to iResearch's "2023 China NFC Juice Consumer Insight Report", the main driver for consumers to choose NFC juice is the NFC juice product itself.
Among them, the taste (74.7%) and taste (53.0%) that affect the drinking experience of consumers, and the nutrients (45.2%), shelf life (43.0%) and production process (40.2%) that affect the quality of fruit juice are the top 5 factors for consumers to consider.
NFC juice is becoming more and more popular, and the post-epidemic era is entering the fast lane, with many NFC juice brands emerging in the market, such as Heytea's sub-brand "Xi Xiaocha", which uses NFC juice as the first bottled drink, Coca-Cola's juice brand innocent has also expanded its related product lines, and Zero Degree Workshop, Chu Cheng, and Luckin Coffee are all increasing their investment in the NFC juice market.
Case:
Founded in 1998, Leoyuan has successfully created three major brands: Leoyuan Beverage, Zero Degree Fruit Fang, and Confectionery and Vegetable Secret, covering three major categories of fruit juice drinks, NFC juice, and fruit and vegetable juice. Among them, Lingdu Guofang is the No. 0 player in the NFC juice market, focusing on NFC freshly squeezed pure juice, adhering to the five "0" principles of "0 water, 0 sugar, 0 adding, 0-6 °C storage, 100% freshly squeezed, and 0 recovery", advocating "healthy and advanced drinking zero", and it is also the first juice brand in China to label the vitamin C content on the bottle.
It is understood that Leoyuan has established five standard production systems: aseptic line, normal temperature juice line, hot filling line, NFC low-temperature cold canning line, NFC low-temperature ultra-clean line. And the whole process of cold chain transportation, from production to sales, the whole process of 0-6 degrees Celsius cold chain transportation, which helps to preserve the fresh flavor of juice and vitamin C.
Source: Zero Degree Fruit Fang
- Niche juices are looking for "new faces" in taste, and prune juice, sea buckthorn puree, and prickly pear juice are popular
Looking at the changes in the juice market, "product taste" is the key factor driving growth, and with the blowout growth of the creative tea industry and product innovation, niche juices have begun to come out of the circle.
During last year's Double 11, many emerging brands emerged on the hot sales lists of many e-commerce platforms, among which most of the large-scale products were niche flavored drinks.
Among them, prune juice is the best-selling beverage among niche flavors. Under the hot situation of "a bottle of lime juice is hard to find" at Sam's Club, the popularity of small lime juice will rise rapidly in 2022, and it will drive a new growth pole of juice by itself. Grapefruit, which is the same citrus fruit as lime, also performed well, and Yuzu Valley, Portuguese, Lemon Republic, and Leyuan were all very bright in terminal sales.
Source: Lemon Republic
Subsequently, prunes and Yunnan olives appeared on the same stage on the juice stage. Taking Yunnan olives as an example, Chu Cheng launched the original Yunnan olive juice, and the local Yunnan brand Kunming Shengyan also launched Ah Ling Workshop Yunnan olives, jasmine olives, etc., to promote the rapid popularity of Yunnan olive juice.
In addition, in recent years, hawthorn juice and prickly pear juice, which have local cultural recognition, have attracted more and more attention. Many niche drinks show a trend of functional consumption, and their health benefits mainly cover gastrointestinal health, beauty and beauty, antioxidant and other aspects.
Sour juices occupy a certain market in the regional market, and new sour products continue to be launched to expand flavors, while blended flavors continue to grow to meet consumers' needs for multiple choices.
In overseas markets, the functions of fruit juice have shown richer and more diverse characteristics, from intestinal health juice, to energy juice, to sleep aid juice, beauty juice, the introduction of these new functions has made the juice industry show vitality. This trend of functionalization not only satisfies consumers' needs for health and diversity, but also brings new development opportunities for the juice industry.
Case:
Exalt, a high-performance nutrition brand, offers two flavours of "fresh" juices. Ginger Ninja and Tur-Mericle, respectively, can restore physical skills by reducing inflammation. Ginger Ninja contains 18g of organic ginger, which is said to have been shown to reduce the formation of free radicals. Meanwhile, Tur-Mericle provides 730 mg of curcumin, which is said to reduce muscle damage by reducing the chance of inflammation. From the ingredient list, we can also see that this juice is additionally made with black pepper and flaxseed.
Source: Exalt
- In addition to the taste, the juice texture is also targeted
Texture is an independent experience other than taste, different from the corresponding taste of taste, texture can bring consumers a more intuitive experience, such as the common "delicate", "silky" and other claims on the packaging.
According to Innova's research, about 60% of consumers around the world say that "taste claims in food and beverages affect purchase decisions". This also illustrates the growing recognition of the impact of taste on food and beverages.
For the juice industry, in addition to flavor innovation, juice innovation can also make a fuss about the taste, such as changing the conventional image of juice by introducing bubble taste.
Case:
At the beginning of 2024, Yuanqi Forest's brand "MAXX" will launch a new grapefruit juice soda. It is reported that the product uses grapefruit juice imported from Murcia, Spain, while emphasizing the "low sugar" attribute. The packaging is packaged in glass bottles, and the bottle cap is made of a more convenient "pull ring cap", which locks the catering consumption scene and focuses on "relieving spicy and greasy, table partner".
Source: Tmall @maxx beverage flagship store
- Juice crosses categories, and coffee/tea/wine has a story
Nowadays, juice is no longer singular, but has covered categories such as coffee, tea, and even wine, and is deeply bound to these categories.
Starbucks is eyeing the juice track and entering the juice tea, and this new juice tea has two innovative flavors: one is to add peach juice to oolong tea, and the other is to add blackcurrant juice to black tea, so that traditional Chinese tea and juice collide with a richer aroma. In terms of publicity, Starbucks, like other sugar-free tea drinks, stands out for its "real tea and real juice", while amplifying the health characteristics of the product.
In the coffee sector, many coffee brands are exploring new growth paths. For example, Yunnan brands Four Leaf Coffee and Chu Orange Juice jointly launched an innovative product "Orange Heart American" at the beginning of the new year. The content of orange juice per cup of the product is about 2.16 fresh oranges, and the raw materials are freshly squeezed from the fruits produced by the self-owned base of Chu Orange, 100% fresh oranges are squeezed, zero added, and non-concentrated. Its unique quality and taste (thin and juicy skin, sweet taste, golden sweet-to-sour ratio of 24:1) create a unique and inimitable taste.
Red Tree Beverages, a Coca-Cola company, has launched Minute Maid Spiked wine-based beverages, a line of fruit-based beverages that combine wine with juice to create a refreshing, fruity wine cocktail. Featuring Pina Colada, Lime Margarita and Strawberry Daiquiri, it has an alcohol content of 13.9% and comes in a 1.5L jumbo bottle, perfect for parties or parties.
图源：Red Tree Beverages
It is worth mentioning that from the perspective of sustainable development, juice production actually consumes a lot of water. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, it takes 50 liters of water to grow an orange, and 200 liters of water to produce a cup of orange juice.
In addition to working categories, we also expect brands to strive for sustainable development through environmental protection efforts, optimizing production processes and management systems.
Fourth, the frequent emergence of categories, can it bring new growth poles to juice?
Seeing that fruit juice has passed through the crisis and grown resiliently, although it has not reached its peak, the brand has not given up and has been exploring, some focusing on healthy fruit juice drinks, and some exploring new fruit raw materials, and the juice market category is also rising and becoming increasingly diversified.
Based on this, Digital Food Proposition tries to give some suggestions for the development of the brand from the following aspects:
Accelerate the diversified development of freshly squeezed beverages and join the high-end battle of the juice industry. Obviously, freshly squeezed juice is favored by consumers, and if brands can actively adjust the pace and move the juice in a fresher direction, it can also help the juice industry to operate healthier.
Dig deep into the raw materials of niche juices, and use social media platforms to promote the popularity of "other juice" drinks. Consumers are looking for specific fruit ingredients and have come to see fruit juice consumption as a way to recuperate internally. At present, the popular niche juice is far from satisfying the taste of consumers, and the brand digs deep into the niche juice, and then uses the "Internet celebrity play" to attract more people to become "fruit fans".
In the sales sector, for the weak cold chain capacity, brands can choose Shanghai and Guangzhou convenience stores to improve the distribution rate. With the trend of consumption downgrade, brands can consider sinking to improve the distribution rate of lower-tier cities at the same time.
Count the food proposition
With the continuous expansion of the domestic fruit market, the popularity of the juice category is bound to continue, and the Chinese juice market will pick up step by step, but in this process, product upgrading will always be the "main theme".
In addition to catering to the needs of health, functionalization, meal replacement and other segments, juice will also combine multiple scenarios such as outdoor and breakfast, as well as the personalized needs of segments, to grow into new categories and forms. Especially in the high-end direction, driven by the emergence of many niche juices and other factors, the juice track will be more dynamic and achieve more diversified development.
Bibliography:
1. Juice, suddenly branched up again? |
2. Huiyuan claims to focus on "selling juice", which may also be its only opportunity|Jiemian News
3. Analysis of the development status and product structure of China's juice industry in 2020 Prospective Industry Research Institute
4. The next 10 years of Chinese beverages| FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation
5. Döhler Changhong: Consumption can't keep up, where is the future of Chinese juice? FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation
6. 2023 China NFC Juice Consumer Insights Report |
7. Is it the "niche fruit" that has made the counterattack of the juice market?
8. Leoyuan: build a channel brand with userism, and build a new distribution
9. The popularity of prune juice and Yunnan olives has soared, and the wind of the juice industry is blowing to the "niche".
10. Starbucks cross-border juice tea, tea drinks are a new outlet? Foodaily Daily Food
11. Chu Cheng NFC freshly squeezed orange juice as a base!
12. Rescue Huiyuan, hold red prune juice, sea buckthorn puree, prickly pear essence...... Juice growth has finally found a stepping stoneFoodaily Daily Food
13. Yuanqi Forest 2024's first new product, increase the fruit juice soda market|food board
14. Innova Market Insights released four major trends in taste, how can food use taste to "charm" consumers? |FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation
15. The first step to break the game: solve the "dispensable" identity crisis|FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation
16. Focus on differentiated services to enhance consumer experience NFC juice welcomes a new round of rapid growth
17.2022 China's fruit juice beverage consumption market size and product development trend| The headlines of the research network