Brazil is the new market for luxury ice cream, says Mintel

According to Mintel’s research, it is those in the North East who are currently the biggest consumers of premium ice cream – with one in 10 (12%) of consumers in that area saying that they consume this type, compared to 9% in Central West, and 5% in South East and 5% in the South respectively.

It seems the North East region is also ripe for future opportunities in premium ice cream as some 70% of consumers in the North East say that they would be prepared to pay for premium quality ice cream – compared to 64% in the South East, 61% in the South and 55% in Central West.

Mintel’s research shows that the ice cream market in Brazil has shown significant growth of 33% in the last five years, reaching a volume of nearly 398 million litres and a value of approximately $3.5bn. The growth in value sales stood at 47% over the 2007-11 period, noticeably ahead of the growth in volume due to the increase in taxes applied to the category.

However, while some 77% of Brazilian consumers say that they eat ice cream, the frequency of consumption in Brazil is still very low; only 25% of consumers say they eat ice cream at least once a week, almost the same percentage of people who never eat ice cream (23%).

Further opportunity for ice cream in Brazil may also come from the 66% of consumers who agree with the statement: ‘I’m interested in natural ice cream’. In terms of demographics, it seems natural ice cream has greater appeal amongst consumers in São Paulo, where 81% of the consumers are interested in natural ice-cream, compared to 50% in Rio de Janeiro.

However, despite this, there are currently few new product launches annually with ‘natural,’ ‘minus,’ ‘plus,’ and ‘functional’ claims. Indeed, Mintel’s Global New Products Database (GNPD) found that between 2009 and 2012, just 5% of all ice cream launches in Brazil had a natural claim.

Source: Mintel