Demand continues for ready-to-use therapeutic food and drink

The global market for ready-to-use therapeutic food is currently experiencing solid growth, driven in part by increasing global disasters and emergencies and the fight against childhood death from malnutrition. The drinkable segment in particular is tipped to grow its market share in the next decade, according to a report published by Persistence Market Research.

The report — ‘Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2016–2024’ — says the global ready-to-use therapeutic food market was valued at US$249.2 million in 2015 and is anticipated to be worth US$276 million by the end of 2016, a year-on-year growth rate of 10.7%. This growth is anticipated to continue at around 10.6% from 2016 to 2024.

Malnutrition is believed to contribute to nearly half of all child deaths, with recurrent infection the prime cause of malnutrition in many tropical countries, according to the report. Mostly, inadequate nutrition restricts recovery from infection, setting up a vicious illness and malnutrition cycle. One way to break this vicious cycle is by providing ill children with nutritional supplements, such as ready-to-use drinkable therapeutic food (RUTF) to promote rapid weight gain in children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

The report categorises the global market of ready-to-use therapeutic food into product type and regions. Product types are solid (biscuits/bar and powder/blends), drinkable therapeutic food and semisolid paste. Among these, powder/blends will account for US$1.5 million in the forecast period 2016–2024, exhibiting a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.2%. The biscuits/bar segment will register a CAGR of 8.7% in the same period, accounting for US$7.8 million, while semisolid paste is anticipated to remain dominant in the global market.

Regionally, the market is categorised as North America, the MEA, Europe and APAC. The MEA market will probably account for relatively higher revenue in the global market, while the North American market is expected to achieve a CAGR of 10.3% between 2016 and 2024.

The highest growth in revenue share and production capacity is forecast to occur in the Europe region. Meanwhile, in APAC, availability of cost-effective raw materials will boost production and consequently fuel the market.

Key market players include Compact AS, Tabatchnik Fine Foods, Edesia USA, NutriVita Foods, Diva Nutritional Products, Nutriset SAS, InnoFaso, Mana Nutritive Aid Products, Hilina and Insta Products. 

Over the forecast period, the segment of drinkable therapeutic food is projected to gain significant market share.