Good-for-you food products have seen rising demand over the past year

BRANDS THAT HAVE ALREADY BENEFITED FROM PANDEMIC TRENDS WILL CONTINUE TO SEE POTENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES IN THEIR PRODUCT CATEGORIES. BUT BOTH RETAILERS AND MANUFACTURERS HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO “RESET” WHAT VALUE MEANS TO CONSUMERS AND HOW THEY ARE BEST PLACED TO MEET THE NEW NEEDS MOVING FORWARD.

- Sanjay Kumar

In the early days of the pandemic, many wondered why it was so hard to find basic food items of everyday consumption in local supermarkets and even online. These product shortages were attributed by many to COVID-19 fear-driven purchases by consumers as they hoarded everyday products and stocked their pantries.

When the government intensified the measures to battle the Covid-19 outbreak with a country-wide lockdown, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies and their retailers said demand surged, mainly due to the strict measures and movement restrictions imposed to contain the outbreak.

Consumers in major cities in India started to stock up on essential items, such as staples, packaged food and cooking oils. But there were also shortages of our favorite beverages and snacks, not necessarily the things we can’t live without, but rather the things we don’t want to live without, as food companies had to trim down their production pipelines.

In those early days of lockdowns, grocery shortages ranged from reasonably concerning to harmlessly annoying. For example, the surge in panic-buying caused shortages of even the most common staple like fl our, which understandably scared many consumers.

But while these bulk purchases did play a small part in some of the shortages, the primary driver was consumers’ increased time spent at home during lockdown and work-from-home initiatives. All of these factors provided the impetus for the resulting shift in consumption and increased demand for everyday staples products.