Confectionery.

Evidence from a study produced by the United Kingdom's (UK) Department of the Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) suggests that among UK consumers candy is losing favor.

A posting on the PackWire website (Decision Media, Montpellier, France) on January 22, 2007 said that the UK study showed confectionery sales in the country decreased 6.1 percent in 2005. The decline was termed, "particularly disappointing after previous years saw small increases keeping the sector buoyant."

Consumers are becoming more calorie conscious and choosing low sugar, low fat "alternatives to traditional brands," said the posting.

Citing information from the Mintel Group, a global market research firm headquartered in London, PackWire said that 34 percent of UK consumers were now "actively avoiding sugar." In France, 40 percent of consumers are reported to be dong the same. In Germany, the ratio of consumers actively avoiding sugar was 37 percent.

By comparison, sugar-free products are doing well. In Poland, for example, sugar-free chewing gum has a 99 percent market share. In Russia, sugar-free accounts for a 95 percent share of the chewing gum market. In the UK, sugar-free gum is 92 percent of the market.

The situation is similar in France. "In France where sugar-free has a market share of 88 percent-traditional sugar chewing gum consumption was down 16 per cent against a 13 per cent rise in sales of the sugar-free alternatives," said Mintel.

The DEFRA study of UK consumers highlighted a revealing trend. DEFRA said that consumers were not just avoiding confectionery but were moving to fruits and vegetables as an alternative. Per person per week expenditures for fruit and vegetables in the UK (April 2006 through March 2006) rose 7.7 percent. During the same period, total expenditures on all food and drink increased 1.7 percent.

A separate, January 11, 2007 posting on PackWire highlighted new emphasis on a known sweetener called maltitol. A company based in Israel is beginning to export bite sized confections featuring the sweetener to the European market.

Marketing emphasizes the nutritional quality of the confections.

Maltitol itself produces about 90 percent of the sweetness of regular sugar, and a recent taste test of ice cream at Penn State University (University Park, PA USA) found no difference between sugar flavoring and maltitol.

CONSUMER MARKET INSIGHTS: