And despite a global food market that declined 6% in new product introductions overall in 2007/08, new almond introductions held virtually stable in the same period, declining by only 1%.
Almonds continued to be the most diversified nut, with high numbers of introductions across all regions and categories, maintaining a 29% share of new nut product introductions.
“These facts and many more illustrate why manufacturers and the trade should continue to be confident in selecting California almonds as their ingredient nut of choice,” said Stacey Humble, director of global strategic initiatives for the Almond Board of California.
“Almond usage remains strong in all major regions of the world, and in a number of markets increased significantly in the last year,” said Humble. “The European market was the only region that didn’t hit record shipments last year, but it was still a strong player, maintaining its position as the largest export region for California almonds.”
Slightly more than 630,494 metric tonnes of California almonds were shipped worldwide during the 12-month crop year ending 31 July, 2009 – a 10% increase over the previous crop year and marking the third consecutive year of record shipments.
Almonds are particularly strong in three major global categories, with 76% of new almond product introductions worldwide coming from confectionery, bakery/pastry and snack foods.
Worldwide, 37% of all new almond products introduced in 2008 were in the confectionery category, 20% in bakery and 19% in snacking. In Europe, 39% were introduced in confectionery, 23% in bakery and 14% in snacks. In 2008, Germany was the top almond introducing country in Europe (89 introductions), followed by the UK (67 introductions), Austria (50 introductions) and France (48 introductions).
These statistics are reinforced by consumers’ and food professionals’ awareness, preference and demand for almonds, which are consistently high and trending upwards according to annual surveys conducted by ABC.
For example, 79% of US food industry professionals surveyed strongly or somewhat agree that a benefit of using almonds is that they add more nutrients to a food product.¹
¹ North America Volume Driver Awareness, Attitude & Usage Study, Sterling-Rice Group, 2007
Source: Mintel/Almond Board of California
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