MEDICINE LAKE, Minn. – The juice category is in need of a jolt. In recent years, the segment has lacked juice, so to speak – as well as innovation. That was the overall sentiment of industry experts at the recent Transform Food & Ag USA 2024 event.
“The American Pediatric Association tells me ‘You need to cut [out] juice.’ Why? It’s loaded with sugar,” noted one of the event’s panelists, Michelle Fite, chief commercial officer at Elo Life Systems.
“So, I don’t have orange juice and I don’t have grape juice in my refrigerator anymore,” she added, during a panel discussion titled “Reinvigorating the Juice Category.”
A common theme at the industry event, which was hosted by Reuters, is that the juice market would benefit from an influx of unique, new products.
“Innovation is just not there. … The juices themselves are not seeing a lot of innovation. One reason for that could be fragmentation of the industry,” said Sophie Côté, an executive with Innova Market Insights.
The worldwide juices market is projected by Statista to grow by 4.3% and reach a market volume of $95.4 billion by 2029. Key brands in the increasingly fragmented category include Naked, Snapple, Minute Maid, California, Innocent and Ocean Spray – though no player is truly dominant at the moment.
Modern consumers demand not just sugar reduction but generally better-for-you beverages.
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