The word “Snack” in English means “light snack”, the main task of which is to quickly and temporarily overcome the feeling of hunger between the main meals.
Snacks have firmly entered the life of Ukrainian consumers, as they correspond to the ideas of modern Ukrainians about a healthy lifestyle. The fast pace of life and leave no time for middle class people to cook.
Because of this, Ukrainian consumers are forced to eat snacks, which are a quick and convenient option for snacking. In Ukraine there are snacks of different nature – from breadcrumbs and salted fish “for beer” to environmentally friendly apple chips.
Nowadays, snacks are the most popular type of snacks all over the world because of the accelerated pace of life in big cities and megacities. They are sold in virtually every retail chain on the planet because of their convenience and ease of consumption. Snacks are designed to have a long shelf life and usually have attractive packaging and appearance.
In general, the food that belongs to snacks, according to a certain category of consumers, does not contribute to a healthy diet, its nutritional value is very small and nowadays, when healthy lifestyle trends are reaching more and more consumers, there is little or no place for snacks in their diet.
Another group of consumers are inclined to believe that global trends, making their own adjustments in the market development, promote the development of snack products in the direction of “wellness” and “naturalization”, and the share of supporters of cereal flakes, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables in the world is steadily growing.
State of the snacks market in Ukraine as a whole
Global snack market trends show that natural snacks are displacing caloric and unhealthy snacks. Businesses that specialize in snack foods bring their owners multi-million dollar profits. The amount of advertising for these products has long since broken all records compared to advertising for regular, nutritious food used during breakfast, lunch or dinner.
The snack market includes: nuts, seeds, breadcrumbs (from white and rye bread), chips, dried and dried seafood (mainly small fish and squid). The rapid development of this market leads to the fact that to the usual types of snacks are added new, non-traditional, such as shrimp, dried fruits (including exotic), nuts in yogurt and others.
The Ukrainian snack food market, which began to develop in the late 1990s, has distinguished itself with rapid growth rates. At first, the growth dynamics of the snacks segment amazed analysts, with growth reaching 200-300% per year. This is due to the fact that the domestic snacks market was quite young and unsaturated, represented at the beginning of its development mainly by chips and salted peanuts. Over time, the range of snack products expanded, and the Ukrainian consumer actively began to consume new products, without paying much attention to the price.
As of January-February 2018, the volume of the Ukrainian market for the main snack categories is: breadcrumbs – UAH 400 million, chips – UAH 1 billion, seeds – UAH 500 million, nuts and dried fish – UAH 600 million each, respectively.
Import and export of snacks in Ukraine
Compared to 2016, snack food exports decreased by 1.2% , including decreases in export volumes for products such as nuts and seeds by 8.4%, potato chips by 5.6%, dried and dried fish by 50%, and dried fruits, citrus and tropical fruits by almost 20%.
Based on the results of 2016-2017, we can trace a decrease in the growth rate of snack food production and exports in volume terms by 3.2% and 0.32%, respectively.
At the same time, their imports increased by 4% over the period.
Key players of the snacks market in Ukraine
According to statistics, companies from SI Group (“Snack-Export”, “Factor”, etc.) remain leaders in almost all segments of snack snacks in Ukraine, excluding the market of healthy snacks.
In the peanut segment, Ukraine’s production leaders are:
- TM “Kozatska Slava”;
- Big Bob TM
- Homka TM.
In the breadcrumbs segment, the leaders are:
- KhrusTeam TM;
- Flint TM
- Snekkin TM;
In the chips segment, the leaders are:
- Lay’s TM
- TM “Lux”
- Chipster’s TM
Portrait of the target audience of snacks in Ukraine
The main consumer of the snacks category in Ukraine is the middle class. These are often office workers in need of a quick snack.
These consumers have these characteristics:
- dominance of an active life position (the population relies on itself to ensure its own well-being);
- availability of internal sources of investment (sufficient salary level);
- high solvency;
- lack of personal time.
The middle class is the most solvent category for the snacks market in Ukraine.
At the same time, the snack market is also interested in the population with low and below-average ability to pay.
The key core of this category is students. Their main preference for snacks is quick access to already prepared food. Students have little time to prepare nutritious meals, and in some cases there are simply no proper facilities to do so.
At the same time, various contests and interactives accompanied by snack advertising campaigns are what attract students to such products.
In this case, an advertising campaign, bright packaging and a memorable unconventional name may be the way to promote the young snack market in Ukraine. COLORO Branding Agency would love to help you create a brand that is sure to hook your target audience.
You can discuss packaging creation, advertising campaign development or any design questions with our project managers.
Problems of the Ukrainian snack food market
Due to the crisis, Ukrainian consumers have reduced the amount of snacks in their diet. Since snacks are not essential products, they lost ground significantly during the crisis. In addition, Ukrainians have begun to support the global trend of a healthy lifestyle, in which there is no place for food containing a large number of flavor enhancers.
Since 2014, snack consumption has remained at a relatively low level. If we compare the Ukrainian consumption market with global figures, the average Ukrainian consumes about 0.5 kg of snacks per year, while Americans – 11 kg, Japanese – 5 kg, and residents of Western Europe – 3.6 kg per person.
Promising industries: healthy snacks market
Analysis of the healthy snacks market in Ukraine shows that nuts and dried fruits are becoming increasingly popular among the population. According to Ukrainian consumers, the choice in favor of snacks of natural origin, without flavor enhancers and other additives contributes to a healthy lifestyle. The fashion for a healthy lifestyle, as well as distrust in the quality of non-ecological products, has led to a trend of demand for healthy snacks.
In 2017, the healthy snacks market was characterized by growth in the dried fruits, nuts, and fruit and nut blends segments.
It was served:
- relative stabilization of the hryvnia/dollar exchange rate;
- building a loyal audience due to the emergence of healthy food trends;
- lower prices for imported products from supplier countries;
- the emergence of suppliers of raw materials for domestic production.
The market of dried fruits and nuts in Ukraine is actively developing, as Ukrainians are ready to pay more for quality products, while they are ready to refuse from cheap products. It should also be noted that the healthy snacks market has become more accessible to the general consumer compared to 2014-2015.
The development of breakfast cereal consumption culture in Ukraine has had a sufficient impact on the growth of the healthy snacks market. According to the results of surveys, consumers are increasingly paying attention to breakfast cereals, namely muesli, instant porridge and cereal.
The snacks market is expected to show a growth rate of between 4-5% during 2018-2019.
Summary
Despite the worsening economic situation in the country and the decline in the purchasing power of the population, domestic and foreign manufacturers are interested in constantly increasing sales of their products. However, in the minds of most consumers, snacks are associated with quick but low-quality meals. However, the emergence of healthy snacks on the market has re-energized consumer interest in this product category.
The analysis of the snacks market in Ukraine showed that the production of snacks in general in 2017 compared to 2016. Decreased by 1.6 thousand tons, or by 1.4%. Volumes declined for almost all major products, except for potato chips (+1.4 thousand tons) and products obtained by extrusion or dough loosening (0.2 thousand tons). Exports of snacks for the same period decreased by 0.32 thousand tons.
So we can see that potato chips are currently one of the most popular types of snacks, which has the widest audience due to the variety of choices. But it should be taken into account that this niche in Ukraine is already filled by such leaders as “Lux”, “Lays”, “Pringles”, etc.
Demand for healthy products is also on the rise, but consumers feel that healthy snacks are unnecessarily overpriced.
In today’s world, when dieting and weight control have become a regular occurrence, the range of snack foods is increasingly expanding to include cereal flakes, dried fruits, vegetables and other healthy products.
Taking into account the fact that the number of competitors operating in the domestic market of snack products is increasing, the possibility of their further effective functioning will be associated with the expansion of the assortment line of “healthy” snacks with a gradual change in the attitude of consumers to snack products and the formation of a new culture of consumption.
