Healthy Future Predicted for Exotic Fruit Flavors – Innova Market Insights

Interest in the so-called ‘superfruits’, marketed on their antioxidant content and the associated health benefits, is continuing to rise and has boosted demand for fruit flavours such as pomegranate, mangosteen, noni and acai.

20/04/09 Demand for exotic fruit flavors is continuing to rise, with various fruits relatively unknown in the western world making an increasing impact globally. An Innova Market Insights analysis of the top flavors launched in 2008 showed now relatively commonplace fruit such as mango, pineapple, banana and coconut leading, accounting for between 15% and 20% of exotic fruit flavour launches each. Lower down in the ranking we find increasingly popular ‘superfruits’, including pomegranate, and acai, as well as less well known exotics such as agave, dragonfruit, yuzu, soursop and quince.

Interest in the so-called ‘superfruits’, marketed on their antioxidant content and the associated health benefits, is continuing to rise and has boosted demand for fruit flavours such as pomegranate, mangosteen, noni and acai. Pomegranate has become relatively mainstream now, accounting for 7% of exotic fruit flavour launches in Innova Market Insight’s 2008 analysis. Acai is less well known, but has shown a continuing rise in popularity over the past four years, with the Innova Database tracking just 13 launches of products with acai in 2005, rising to over 100 in 2006, more than 200 in 2007 and over 350 in 2008.

Acai, a purple berry from Brazil, claims a long list of benefits, including greater energy and stamina, improved digestion, better mental focus and improved sleep, although there has also been some adverse publicity about the validity of some of these claims and the way that the products are marketed. Acai has undoubtedly moved further into the mainstream in recent years, however, with launches now encompassing a wide range of products, led by soft drinks but also encompassing confectionery, bakery and cereal products, dried fruit mixes and spreads. Its late 2008 appearance in a range of Heinz baby foods in the US is probably as good an indicator as any of its growing consumer acceptance, however. The Fruit Berry Blends range includes Acai, Blueberry and Raspberry Mini Cereal Bars for toddlers aged over 12 months, as well as a number of jarred foods, both organic and conventional, containing acai in combination with other fruits such as apple, pear, pomegranate, cranberry, blueberry, blackberry and blackcurrant, intended for babies aged over 6 months

Fruits promising a similar growth pattern to acai, based on recent performances monitored by Innova Market Insights, include dragonfruit, yuzu and soursop, Dragonfruit, a cactus fruit, is native to Mexico and Central and South America, but is also cultivated in southeast Asia. It has a striking fuschia-pink skin and when cut open reveals opaque white flesh with small black seeds inside. Launches featuring dragonfruit more than trebled in 2008, albeit from a very small base, but more significant perhaps was its appearance a range of fruit-based drinks in non-traditional markets, including New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal.

Yuzu is a small golden yellow citrus fruit that until recently was largely confined to the Japanese market. Launches recorded on Innova have risen steadily and, at the current rate, are likely to exceed 100 in 2009, although perhaps of more interest is the way that activity has spread out from Japan and into the US and European markets such as France, Switzerland and Austria, again mainly in the juice drinks sector.

Soursop, also known as prickly custard apple, guyabano or guanabano, is a large, edible fruit with a prickly skin, native to northern South America, but now grown in many tropical regions. It is very popular as a juice drink in South America and Asia, with 2008 also seeing launches in the US, although activity remains very limited even in comparison with dragonfruit and yuzu.

So which are the lesser-known but upcoming exotic fruit flavours for 2009 and beyond? Innova Market Insights Head of Research LuAnn Williams suggests “Jujube, jackfruit and cloudberry may be three to watch in 2009, with jujube already in widespread use in China, but starting to spread elsewhere; jackfruit still largely confined to its Southeast Asian origins; and cloudberry starting to move out from its traditional home of Scandinavia into the wider European market.”

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