Home cooking elevates demand for seasonings and sauces in the post-Covid-19 scenario

The rise in popularity of home cooking due to the Covid-19 pandemic has created market opportunities for seasonings, dressings and sauces. Credit: Micolas / Shutterstock.

The onset of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak last year drastically disrupted the food and beverages (F&B) industry from farm to fork, leading to the downfall of some F&B categories while opening windows of opportunities for others.

Seasonings, dressings and sauces (SDS) is one F&B category that fared better in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region during the pandemic, with consumption rising by 4.4% from 16.4 billion kg in 2019 to a forecast 17.1 billion kg by last year. The growth rate is formidable given that offtake from the foodservice industry plummeted during the year as the anti-Covid-19 lockdown and social distancing restrictions compelled most eateries to close or operate with reduced seating and sparse guest visits.

The downfall in on-trade sales was offset by windfall gains from the retail channel as a result of increasing demand from families having home-cooked meals and snacks more frequently than before the virus outbreak while cocooning at home. This trend is reflected in GlobalData’s 2020 Covid-19 Recovery Consumer Survey in which, midway through last year, 53% of Indian respondents stated that they intended to spend more time cooking or preparing food at home in the foreseeable future as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. This gave a fillip to sales of sauces, spices, dressings, purees and pastes that enabled consumers to quickly add more flavour to home-cooked meals and snacks.

Amid the monotony of their prolonged stays at homes, consumers look at cooking often as a leisure activity, exploring new recipes to make mealtimes and snacking occasions more exciting. GlobalData’s 2020 Coronavirus (Covid-19) Recovery Consumer Survey (Week 11 of 11) indicates that 80% of Chinese respondents and 66% of Indian respondents intended to experiment with new cuisines and recipes, sparking demand for a wider variety of seasonings, dressings and sauces that enabled consumers to easily reproduce flavours and textures from local, traditional or foreign cuisines.

Some habits cultivated during the pandemic are expected to stick long after the pandemic is subdued. Although the numbers may dip, a sizable section of Asia-Pacific consumers is poised to continue to prefer home-cooked meals and snacks over out-of-home offerings in the near future. As such, 52% of Asia-Pacific respondents in GlobalData’s 2021 Q1 survey stated that they have been cooking meals at home from scratch more frequently or have started doing this over the last three months as a result of the pandemic. Similarly, 37% of Asia-Pacific respondents said the same about cooking meals at home using meal kits.

This hints at lucrative opportunities for seasonings, dressings and sauces manufacturers to develop versatile products that provide more convenience to home cooks, or enable them to recreate restaurant-quality dishes from the comfort of their homes. This can potentially aid them in offsetting the decline in demand from the foodservice sector. Seasonings, dressings and sauces can be accompanied by recipes, usage instructions and tips, as well as information about ingredients and manufacturing processes of the product. This is pertinent considering that GlobalData forecasts a slowdown in growth (2.3%) in volume sales of seasonings, dressings and sauces in the Asia-Pacific over 2020–2021 to reach 17.5 billion kg through this year.

Manufacturers can cross-sell flavours from various countries in the region. For instance, traditional Korean Gochujang, Thai Sriracha and Vietnamese Hoisin can offer a novel taste experience to Indian consumers, who typically stock their pantries and refrigerators with plain-vanilla tomato ketchup, chilli sauce and soy sauce. Some ingredients or flavours, however, may need to be tweaked to suit local palates and sensitivities. Brands can also partner with local restaurants to include sachets of sauces and seasonings in takeaway and home delivery parcels so that consumers can customise their food.

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