Confectionery machinery sales to reach US$4 billion by 2021

With the popularity and accessibility of confectionery continuously growing worldwide, there is becoming a greater need for machinery to meet these demands. A study from The Freedonia Group forecasts global chocolate and confectionery machinery to increase 7.1% per year, with sales projected to reach US$4 billion by 2021.

In 2016, China was the largest market in confectionery machinery, accounting for $750 million in sales. This is only expected to grow further, as Chinese companies continue to use manual food processing techniques. According to Freedonia, this opens up a huge potential for market growth for technology and machinery that can accelerate production and make it more efficient. By expanding its food processing capabilities, China is forecast to account for over one-third of total global demand increases in value terms by 2021.

Key findings in the study suggest that the fastest increase in the demand for food processing machinery will occur in developing parts of the world in places such as the Asia–Pacific region, Central and South America, and the Africa/Mideast region.

Although Central and South America had a compound annual growth rate of -14% between 2011 and 2016, they are expected to see the fastest growth in the chocolate and confectionery machinery market by 2021.

Brazil is anticipated to record the biggest sales increases of any major national market through 2021. Previously, falling food and beverage manufacturing and investment activity led to a reduction in food processing machinery demand. A resurgence in investment spending as food and beverage suppliers expand capacity will bring about sales gains in Brazil.

However, since this region only accounts for 5% of the market, Freedonia suggests it will not have significant impact on demand.

The report, entitled ‘Global Food Processing Machinery by Type and Region, 4th Edition’, noted some other general trends in this area which will impact increasing sales. These include: the transition from manual food processing to mechanical food processing in developing countries; replacement of older machinery in mature markets; and rising demand for processed foods.

Freedonia named the leading industry players in the market as Ali Group, Bühler, GEA Group, John Bean Technologies, Marel, SPX FLOX and Tetra Laval.