South East Asia Snack Bar Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The South East Asia snack bar market is forecasted to witness a CAGR of 5.19% during the forecast period (2020 - 2025).

Key Highlights

• There has been increasing demand from the South Asian consumers for the convenient and healthy on-the-go snack options,as most of the consumers in this region are experiencing fast-paced, active lifestyles. Therefore, the changing lifestyle, the increasing number of vistors visiting these countries, consumption of smaller meals at anytime of the day, is driving the consumption of snack bars in these countries, as they fullfill the apetitite, provide healthier eating option, and moreover are a value of money.
• A major factor restraining the growth of the snack bar in the South East Asian countries is the high price of these bars and lower consumer awareness, when compared to alternative snacks and other confectionery products. Consumer preference for clean-label ingredients is evidently high. Snack bar has opportunities within functional ingredients, reduced sugar, savory spins, and plant proteins in the region studied.

Key Market Trends

Propensity to Consume Convenient and Healthy On-the-go Meal and Snack Options

The demand for convenience foods is growing at a faster pace in the South Asian economies, owing to the changes in social and economical patterns, as well as increase in urbanization, buying power and awareness about health foods, changes in meal pattern and existing food habits, and the desire to taste new products. Therefore, the snack bars are becoming extremely popular, especially among the working classpeople, teenage children, people living in hostels, bachelors, and so on residing the country.

Moroever, snacking in Southeast Asia is also considered as a moment for sharing with family and friends, thus creating opportunities to adjust packaging for single serves for snacking in between meals or family-size packs for sharing, thereby driving the the snack bar market forward in the overall Asian region.

In fact, snacking is a large and growing behavior around the world , with around USD 1.2 trillion spent on snacking products every year (As per Mondelēz International). Therefore, the snacking products are predicted to grow at a faster rate, thus driving the market studied further.

Flavour Innovations

Basic granola and breakfast/cereal bar sales are declining, and energy bars and fruit bars are taking the lead. While good-for-you ingredients like chia, quinoa, flax, spirulina, and hemp are increasing, beloved tastes like chocolate, nuts, coconut, and apple are even more popular all in the South East Asian countries. For instance Yogood, as snack bar brand from Malaysia, provides their snack bar range of products in different flavors such as CranberryMango, BlueberryCranberry, Choc&Nut, Strawberry, Wildberry, Chocolate Drizzle, and others, so as to induce more consumer to purchase their products.

Moreover, savory flavors and descriptors, such as spicy and salty, are on the rise. Ethnic flavors also continue to gain traction, as societies becomes more diverse, and world travel more common, particularly in the South Asian countries.

Competitive Landscape

The South East Asia snack bar market is competitive market, where both regional and global players are selling their products in these countries. Some of the major companies operating in the market are General Nutrition Centers, Inc., PRISTINE, and General Mills, Inc.

In an effort to add variety and generate interest, there were new entrants into snack bars during the previous years, in the region studied. For instance, Mondelez Philippines launched its Belvita brand of cereal bars in 2018.

Moreover, companies such as Amerta Indah Otsuka, continues to dominate snack bars with its wide distribution channel, intensive product marketing, and new product launches in Indonesia. In 2019 its retail value share increased again, owing to the double-digit growth of its Soy Joy brand in protein/energy bars.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support