Japan is the largest confectionery market in Asia with a high per capita consumption of chocolate. The recession in 2009, along with the earthquake and tsunami in year 2011, caused the Japanese economy to significantly retract, which negatively affected consumer spending. A trend observed in all three confectionery categories viz. sugar, chocolate and gum was reduced consumption as consumers opted for smaller packages. Despite larger packs offering less expensive unit prices, consumers desired to spend less while purchasing. As a result, spending on chocolate products also declined. However, chocolate market has recovered a decent amount of sales after 2013, with most of the sales being created in the premium and luxury categories. Japanese consumers are influenced by price but they are unlikely to compromise on the quality and freshness of products for more affordable pricing. Hence, the market has already moved towards luxury chocolates rather than everyday products and the average selling price of chocolate products is even higher than the global average.

According to “Japan Chocolate Market Outlook 2022", the seasonal chocolate market was growing with a CAGR of 7.76% in the last five years.

This was highest among all the other categories like boxed assortments, tablets, bagged self-lines/soft-lines and countlines. Valentines Day contributed to the majority of the revenue in this category, followed by other occasions like White Day, Blossom Festival, New Year Eve, etc. Awareness about polyphenol in cacao has changed the perception of Japanese consumers that chocolate is a healthy product. Milk chocolate doesn’t contain many polyphenols, but is high in sugar and fat; hence sales of such chocolates are more or less stagnant. On the other hand, dark chocolate which is rich in polyphenol has become popular in the wake of a recent bean-to-bar trend among chocolatiers. Japans aging population now seeks confectionery products with functional benefits as a result of rising health concerns. The country has a large chocolate product line that capitalizes on functional chocolate products containing flavonoids rich dark chocolate and chocolate cereal bars with exotic fruit and vegetable flavors, spices, whole grain granola, dried fruit, premium nuts, and vitamins. Chocolate manufacturers from around the world are capitalizing on this trend by marketing creative flavors and healthy natural foods.

Major Companies:

Meiji Holdings
Lotte Confectionery
Morinaga
Fujiya Co.
Nestle

Key points:

Chocolate confectionery is expected to be the largest confectionery subsector in Japan over the forecast period.
Demographic factors will play an important role in the coming years. With an aging population and declining rates of regeneration, the consumer base for confectionery products is shrinking.
The proportion of residents aged 65 and over, who are generally marginal confectionery consumers, has been steadily rising from last few years.
Declining population and growing elderly population will have a negative effect on the volume growth of chocolate confectionery too, which is expected to slow down in the forecast period.
For this reason, leading Japanese firms are increasingly looking to develop eye-catching new products to command more domestic market share and simultaneously expand into markets overseas.

Key Category

• Boxed Assortment Chocolate
• Seasonal Chocolate
• Chocolate Tablets
• Bagged Self-lines/Soft-lines
• Chocolate Countlines

For more information or for report request, visit @ https://www.aarkstore.com/food-beverages/339670/india-packaged-rtd-tea-market-outlook-2021