Sugar disquiet to hurt Europe’s candy market

By Oliver Nieburg

- Last updated on GMT

Tougher to market sugar confectionery in Europe as regulators crackdown on sugared products directed at kids, says Companiesandmarkets,com
Tougher to market sugar confectionery in Europe as regulators crackdown on sugared products directed at kids, says Companiesandmarkets,com

Related tags Sugar confectionery Nutrition Compound annual growth rate Confectionery Obesity Uk

The European sugar confectionery market is forecast to decline in the next few years as regulators and consumers consider the impact of sugar on public health, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan.

The report, available via Companiesandmarkets.com, says that sugar confectionery is expected to experience a negative compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2013-2018.

Any growth is expected to come in Eastern Europe while government and social pressure on sugar is expected to impact marketing of sugar confections elsewhere.

Unhealthy image

Tosin Jack, research analyst at Frost & Sullivan told ConfectioneryNews: “The challenges faced by the confectionery product market are predominantly due to the health and wellness trend. …The sugar confectionery market is likely to experience the biggest growth challenge of the three segments, as it increasingly becomes more challenging for manufacturers to innovate and communicate the functional benefits in a sugar product.”

The overall confectionery market (chocolate, sugar confectionery and gum) market is expected to reach €61.87bn ($72.94bn) based on a negative CAGR of 0.3%. But the sugar confectionery is projected to register a negative CAGR 1.7%.

Jack said the negative outlook was predominantly due to a health and wellness trend.

 “The increasing prevalence of diseases such as obesity and diabetes has led to more health conscious consumers, as various governments step up to deal with the issue by creating awareness through campaigns," ​she said.

"In particular, there have been increased reports and media attention on the reduction of sugar in children’s diet as concerns about child obesity continue to grow. This poses a considerable challenge for sugar confectioneries given that they are generally targeted towards younger consumers."

The analyst said this meant consumers were demanding foods with less or no sugar, even in their confectionery products.

Marketing constraints

Companiesandmarkets.com added that growing concerns on child obesity had resulted in regulatory limitation on related advertisements, which had constrained market growth in sugar confectionery products that are generally directed at kids.

“The UK government are concentrating on clear labelling legislation combined with health education and are waiting on the way taxation impacts on other markets,”​ said Mike King, director of Companiesandmarkets.com.

France, Mexico and Hungary are among the countries that have imposed taxes on sugary goods, though these are mostly on soft drinks.

Sugar in the diet

According to a UK National Diet and Nutrition survey from 2008 to 2012​, overall confectionery accounted for 9% of an adults sugar intake, 13% for teenager and 14% for children aged 4-10.

sugar intake table
Source: National Diet and Nutrition Survey: results from Years 1 to 4 (combined) of the rolling programme for 2008 and 2009 to 2011 and 2012.

For children, the amount of sugar coming from confectionery was evenly split between chocolate and sugar confectionery. That made overall confectionery the second largest source of sugar for children and teenagers behind soft drinks, which accounted for 30% of sugar intake for teens and 17% for children.

In the past year, sugar confectionery and chocolate have been removed from many checkout aisles in the UK at retailers such as Aldi and Lidl and Tesco convenience stores.

Related topics Markets Candy Health & Functionality

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3 comments

Response: The other 90% and soft drinks

Posted by Oliver Nieburg,

We've included a table from the UK National Diet and Nutritional Survey to provide a stronger overview. The article has also since been updated to include comments from a Frost & Sullivan analyst.

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what about the 90%

Posted by Dave Peters,

So confectionery provides around 10% of dietary sugar. If sugar is a problem, should we not be concentrating on the 90%?

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Sugar in soft drinks vs confections

Posted by Bruce Smith,

Thanks for the info on sugar in candy. But you failed to tell us the percentage of sugar consumed in soft drinks. Please reply

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