Tariffs, geopolitical tensions and climate risks are fuelling market volatility and challenging business operation, profit margins and growth potential. Economic outlook is uncertain, with unstable prices and fractured trade. Managing risks and building resilience are now imperative, while agile pricing actions and innovation are key to unlocking new opportunities. Targeting high-growing emerging markets can boost volume and diversify supply chains.

Consumers are increasingly anxious about global stability and their own financial, social, physical and mental wellbeing. This is driving them to exert more control over the impact and fallout of their consumption. Protect your brand against downside risk and leverage growth opportunities by understanding and empowering this mindful, evidence-seeking and outcome-orientated shift.

China’s strategic engagement with Southeast Asia (SEA), rooted in historical ties, has intensified under the Belt and Road Initiative. As SEA emerges as a growth hub for Chinese exports, Chinese firms are capitalising on rising consumer demand and favourable demographics. With shifting brand perceptions, Chinese companies are gaining traction in sectors like appliances, beauty, and consumer foodservice.. Success hinges on localisation, market intelligence, and strategic partnerships.

GLP-1 usage is going to rise considerably across the world in the coming years, confronting food and beverages with both challenges and opportunities. The pressure on volumes is going to be considerable, but changing needs of GLP-1 users will at the same time boost demand in many categories.

This report identifies key long-term megatrends shaping consumer behaviour in Latin America. Technological advancements and wider internet access drive digital living, offering solutions to regional challenges. Better access to financial services fuels e-commerce and s-commerce growth. Inflation and changing household dynamics are driving consumers to focus on saving time and money, while also prioritising their overall wellbeing in the face of economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Thanks to its strength in the North American market, where it is a leading player in a number of categories, including ready meals, pickled products and tomato pastes and purées, ConAgra is a top 10 player in cooking ingredients and meals globally. Although it is very heavily exposed to its reliance on a single regional market, ConAgra is expected to continue growing, given the expertise it has within the areas that it operates

Nestlé remains a leading player in cooking ingredients and meals globally, as it does in overall packaged food. However, share losses in recent years have seen it slip from first to third place in cooking ingredients and meals, although it has now identified a number of underperforming parts of the overall business, including US frozen pizza, and has tasked itself with turning these areas round in the near future.

Unilever is the number two player in global cooking ingredients and meals, mainly thanks to its leadership of the sauces, dips and condiments category, although it also has a significant presence in meals and soups. Unilever continued to close the gap on leading player Kraft Heinz in 2024, with expectations that it could even overtake it in the coming years.

Amid elevated prices and a stronger consumer focus on affordability, a more value favourable retail environment is driving the growth of private label packaged foods across Latin America. Retailers are expanding assortments, better understanding consumer needs, and partnering with quality suppliers. This report explores how private label manufacturers and retailers are competing in this evolving market, focusing on key categories, regional trends, and strategic marketing initiatives.

Significant shifts in US policies on tariffs, taxation, spending, regulation, migration, AI/tech, and energy are expected to impact the global economy and key industries like food and drinks, health and beauty, home and tech, travel, and automotive. Trump's policies can undermine global economic growth, affect consumer sentiment, risk higher prices, and disrupt production and distribution network. However, some opportunities will arise as the global supply chain rewires and consumers adapt.

The inflationary environment was impacting the performances of some country markets at the end of the review period, with sales declining or stagnating in Argentina and Mexico in 2024, for example, although the Brazilian market, the region’s biggest, recorded another year of healthy growth in this year. As inflation eases, the cooking ingredients and meals market in Latin America is expected to see positive growth over the forecast period.

In recent years, volume sales of cooking ingredients and meals have been struggling in the face of rising costs and prices due to the inflationary global environment as well as more localised problems, such as the frequent loadshedding in South Africa or currency devaluations. However, positive volume growth was seen at a regional level in 2024, with performances expected to improve in the coming years as inflation eases and economies recover.

After the pandemic resulted in a spike in demand for retail sales of cooking ingredients and meals in Western Europe in 2020, the volume performance was subsequently hit by high inflation in 2022 and 2023, favouring discounters and private label in a number of markets. With inflation easing in 2024, performances were generally improving. Positive, if modest, growth is expected in Western Europe over the forecast period.

The Cooking Ingredients and Meals industry is becoming increasingly competitive as brands navigate shifting consumer priorities, rising commodity costs and evolving retail dynamics. Success hinges on differentiation through health-driven innovation, indulgence and personalisation. E-commerce is expanding as a crucial channel while emerging markets offer high growth potential. To sustain market share, brands must balance affordability with premiumisation and strengthen local partnerships.

Consumers continue to be more mindful of their snack purchases - leveraging different channels, categories, and brands to find a fitting deal. And as manufacturers rise to deliver more quality affordable offerings, a great deal of market volatilities (eg tariffs, regulations) create challenges that are best tackled with long-term, positively impactful investments. A greater degree of flexibility, consumer centricity and relentless rooting in value remain crucial to sustain a path of growth.

By 2029, Asia Pacific will host 56% of the global population aged 65+, representing a trillion-dollar opportunity. This report provides a critical framework to understand, develop and address the unmet needs of this rapidly growing demographic. Leveraging Euromonitor's Inclusivity - Empowerment - Indulgence framework, companies that act now will secure future growth and maintain relevance in a shifting consumer landscape.

Demand normalised to an extent in China in 2024 following the decline seen a year earlier after the Chinese authorities scrapped their zero-COVID policy at the end of 2022, leading to a major return to eating out in this country in 2023. While sales in Japan continue to struggle, India, with its expanding population and improving economy, was recording strong growth at the end of the review period, which is expected to continue in the coming years.

Digital Living, Convenience, Pursuit of Value and Sustainable Living are key megatrends in Western Europe, shaped by technological advancements, demographic changes and shifting consumer values. Demand for multifunctional products is driving brands to simplify and optimise. Despite privacy concerns, AI-driven personalisation is gaining acceptance. Value perceptions are shifting toward functionality and affordability, while sustainability continues to influence purchasing choices.

Inhalation - one of the most common modes of consumption globally - is undergoing a rapid transformation. This report assesses the significant risks for those companies who fail to address that change and the huge opportunities for those who can leverage science, technology and new substance frontiers to reimagine inhalation’s role in future societies.

As investment and attention shifts towards GenAI, companies of all types must evaluate potential opportunities associated with this technology. Given its ability to go a step further than AI to create something new, it is viewed as being incredibly powerful. This report explores opportunities and challenges across common use cases such as marketing, product development, the customer journey, customer service and the supply chain.

Cooking ingredients and meals returned to total volume growth in Ethiopia in 2024. The edible oils category continued to dominate sales during the year. As essential products, edible oils are resilient in times of economic difficulties, such as those seen in the second half of the review period. Meanwhile, stock cubes and powders and tomato pastes and purées continued to dominate sauces, dips and condiments, but demand for cooking and table sauces grew as local diets became more Westernised.

Cooking ingredients and meals posted a moderate 2.2% in 2025. The market slowed compared to the thriving period 2021-2022 when convenient solutions and the growing home cooking trend laid the ground for innovation and experimentation. New launches have subsided due to high inflation and disturbed global supply chains; however, consumers’ desire for novel products has remained. Products suited to various dietary, lifestyle and health needs have continued to see demand despite tighter budgets.

Cooking ingredients and meals in Uganda performed well in 2024, supported by urbanisation, population growth, improving economic conditions and wider distribution. Rising prices shaped demand, as consumers prioritised lower-priced, including unpackaged, options. Meanwhile, the government continued to invest in local production, especially in edible oils, to offer more affordable options to local consumers. However, many product types remained expensive and lacked wide awareness or availability.

In 2024, cooking ingredients and meals in India is set to display solid growth in retail volume terms, along with a dynamic, double-digit increase in retail current value terms, with rising sales across all the main categories. Foodservice volume sales are also set to rise, due to increased consumption outside of the home, and the rising number of tourists. As consumer expenditure slightly picked up in India in 2024, this is anticipated to drive the growth of cooking ingredients and meals, espec