Fruit Juice Industry Lacks Packaging
The Fruit Juice Industry Association (VdF) reports a tense situation regarding transport packaging, raw materials, and cargo.
The situation currently offers little planning certainty for the current year, explains the VdF on the occasion of its annual review. The bottom line is that, according to initial estimates by the fruit juice association, per capita consumption in 2021 was 28.5 liters. A decline of 1.5 liters, which could be offset by the expected recovery of the catering and out-of-home market. Whether this will happen depends to a considerable extent on the development of prices along the entire value chain, from which hardly any industry is currently spared. “What worries us a lot at the moment, in addition to energy costs, are the rising cargo and raw material prices. Furthermore, bottlenecks in packaging are increasing due to the disrupted supply chains,” says Klaus-Jürgen Philipp, president of the VdF.
Loss of the Ukrainian glass industry
The shortage is evident in transport packaging and films as well as beverage cartons, he said. For PET, the situation is still stable, but for glass packaging, the loss of the Ukrainian glass industry is expected to have an impact. Lidss are also in short supply or unavailable for many packages, the association said.
Container cargo prices from Asia, the most important supplier of mango, passion fruit, and pineapple, were up 800 percent, and containers from South America were up 400 percent, it said. The raw commodity itself also became significantly more expensive due to weak harvests and rising energy costs during processing.
Diverse market
During the presentation of the annual balance, the association also provided insight into the variety of tastes in the industry. The diversity of the German fruit juice market also became increasingly evident last year in the range of high-quality fruit juice specialties to which consumers frequently turned. New innovations ranging from shots to blends with added benefits helped the segment increase its market share from 33.7 percent in 2020 to 35.9 percent in 2021. Smoothies are also developing strongly within their market share, with an increase of 16.2 percent. Organic juices round off the broad product range. Here, orange juice especially increased in volume by 6.2 percent to 24.3 percent.
