Ready meals are packaged precooked meals that can be consumed with minimum preparation. Consumers prefer ready-to-eat meals due to their busy lifestyles. These meals also can be a...
The Packaged Food market in GCC is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.38 percent and 4.02 percent in terms of revenue and volume, respectively, during the period 2014-2019, according to a report by Technavio. Packaging plays a major role in ready meals sales in terms of retaining the vitamin content, color, product quality, texture, taste, and shelf life. Vendors are collaborating with packaging manufacturers to develop advanced packaging technology for their products to capture consumer base. Biodegradable barrier tray is one such latest technology that is expected to drive the market as it provides a better alternative to the retailers in the form of a low carbon footprint than the aluminum, PP, and CPET packaging. Ready meals registered current retail value growth of 8 percent in 2016, in UAE, in line with the CAGR of the review period (2011-2016), according to a report by Euromonitor International. Ready meals continued to benefit from increasing demand from consumers for convenience and the introduction of several players' ranges of chilled ready meals. Dr Oetker led ready meals in 2016 with 39 percent of retail value sales. The company continued to benefit from strong brand equity, especially among Western expatriates. Manufacturers are expected to increase their product offerings and more catering companies are expected to join the trend of entering retail chilled ready meals. In Turkey, growing urbanization was the main factor that affected value and volume growth in ready meals in 2016 due to the growing working and student population. Additionally, the rising number of single-person households in the country, another consequence of urbanization, increased demand for practical meal solutions. Furthermore, the launch of new products with different flavors, such as Kerevitas' new frozen pizza Superfresh Aman Adali Kofteli & Acili Pizza (a chilly flavor pizza with meal balls recipe from the Adana region) also stimulated growth in ready meals. As a result of the growing popularity of ready meals, particularly frozen pizza, current value growth in 2016 was higher than the review period CAGR of 15 percent. On the other hand, the report adds that current value growth in ready meals in Morocco witnessed a considerable slowdown in 2016 at 5 percent, compared to 17 percent value growth in 2015 and a 14 percent value CAGR over the review period. The main reason behind this slowdown is the rising awareness amongst Moroccans of healthy and organic food, a concept that has been highly supported by the growing emergence of "Express Delivery" fast food. This is especially growing with the widespread use of mobile internet, allowing consumers to easily order by a simple click from their mobile phones and pay once they receive their meal.