Shortenings Market - Forecast(2023 - 2028)

Shortenings Market Overview

The Shortenings Market size is estimated to reach $4.33 billion by 2027 and is poised to grow at a CAGR of 4.17% over the forecast period of 2022-2027. Shortenings are the ingredient that helps in adding texture-flakiness and even crispiness to the various bakery and confectionaries items. Some of the common shortening products are vegetable oils or hydrogenated vegetable oils such as palm or coconut oils. Further, consumers often add non-vegan shortening ingredients such as margarine and lard. Margarine has had an interesting processing method that allows it to be made from either animal-based sources or vegan sources. Lard, on the other hand, is completely obtained from the fatty tissue of a pig, while tallow another shortening product is obtained from cattle or sheep. Shortening products, just like starch are an important baking ingredient as they elongate the feeling of crispiness and flakiness in longer solid fat confectionaries. Bakers and Confectioners add monoglycerides to reduce the water-oil interfacial tension, thereby helping in making various bread and buns. The governing application, Bakery, has been growing at a rapid pace thereby supplementing the growth along with the uprising of robust working-class supplemented by growing urbanization across the globe and acting as key drivers for the Shortening Industry in the projected period of 2022-2027.

Report Coverage

The report: “Shortenings Market Forecast (2022-2027)", by Industry ARC covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the Shortenings Market.

By Source- Animal and Vegan.
By Application- Bakery and Confectionary, Snacks and Savoury, and Others. 
By Distribution Channel- Online Channel and Off-Line Channels.
By Geography- North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico), Europe (Germany, United Kingdom (U.K.), France, Italy, Spain, Russia, and Rest of Europe), Asia Pacific (China, Japan India, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, and Rest of Asia Pacific), South America (Brazil, Argentina, and Rest of South America), and Rest of the World (the Middle East, and Africa).

Key Takeaways

• Geographically, Europe’s shortening market held a dominant market share in the year 2021. It is owing to the presence of a robust bakers’ and confectioners’ association and group of manufacturers. Additionally, the other raw material pertaining to bakeries and confectionaries have been long dominated by the said region. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to offer lucrative growth opportunities to the marketers in the projected period owing to the uprising of soar and robust manufacturing capacities. The flag bearer for such movement would be China-India and Japan.
• Increasing consumption of bakery confectionery items is one of the crucial drivers for the Shortenings Market. However, awareness pertaining to the heightened consumption of excessive fats has hampered the overall market growth.
• A detailed analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats will be provided in the Shortenings Market Report.

Shortenings Market Segmentation Analysis- By Source

The Shortening market based on the source can be further segmented into animal and vegan. Vegan held a dominant market share in the year 2021. Various vegetable oils are included within the vegan segment, and the rise of veganism as a trend has rightly helped the market gain an edge. Consumers have become extremely aware of the ingredients they are consuming, plus aspects such as non-GMO, organic, and other aspects have aided the market growth. Further, giants such as Cargill had introduced new product lines especially for supplementing the vegan demand within the bakery items.

Moreover, vegan is estimated to be the fastest-growing, with a CAGR of 4.8% over the forecast period of 2022-2027. Product launches substantially within the organic and sustainable product categories are growing. Further, a 300% increase in vegans was observed between 2004-2019, thereby holding around 3% of the total population in the US.

Shortenings Market Segmentation Analysis- By Application

The Shortening market based on the application can be further segmented into bakery and confectionaries, snacks and savory, and others. Bakery and Confectionaries held a dominant market share in the year 2021. It is owing to the inclusion of various types of bakery items that needs shortening products. Shortening brings a gap between water and dough, thereby allowing the flakiness and crispness in the entire offerings. Bakery items boomed during the pandemic owing to offline channels or household sales. Consumers purchased baking soda-cocoa powder-and various other ancillaries to bake cakes, as manufacturers such as Tata and Cadbury reported 70-80% increment in sales. Additionally, pre-mixes sales boomed which has all the necessary oils and shortening products. Home baking as a trend helped the bakery and confectionary hold a lion’s share.

Moreover, the bakery and confectionaries segment is estimated to be the fastest-growing, with a CAGR of 4.9% over the forecast period of 2022-2027. It is owing to the product innovations being taken by the end-users, keeping the consumer sentiments nigh and high.

Shortenings Market Segmentation Analysis- By Geography

The Shortening market based on Geography can be further segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and the Rest of the World. Europe held a dominant market share of 37% as compared to the other regions in 2021. It is owing to the strong presence of various manufacturing or processing bakeries & confectionary industries within the region. Moreover, the numbers of bakers pre-covid were on an increase, especially the artisanal bakers’ numbers increased around 36% within a span of 10 years. Owing to such reasons, the region held a dominant size.

However, Asia-Pacific is expected to offer lucrative growth opportunities to the marketers owing to the growing robustness in the food packaging and processing industries, especially in China and India. Various ready-to-eat baked goods and savories are manufactured in China owing to the presence of cheap labor and other overhead costs. Moreover, governmental support would readily aid the market.

Shortenings Market Drivers

The governing application, Bakery, has been growing at a rapid pace thereby supplementing the growth of the Shortening Market.

From need-based fulfillment to want-based fulfillment, the bakery industry has grown to that extent. Consumers were ardent bread consumers owing to its need but having a bulk of varieties within the bread segment has altered the need-based demand to want-based demand. One of the predominant reasons for the same is the availability of the internet across the world, especially the rising data consumption patterns from low-and middle-income countries that have aided the overall demand. As per the latest report from TRAI, the internet users are bound to touch 900 million by 2025, from earlier 622 million in 2020. The following results in an increase of 45% for the next 5 years. Retail giants have noted a surge in bakery-related items from the tier-2 and 3 cities particularly pertaining to bakery items owing to their availability of the internet and mobile payments. Owing to such reasons, the overall market is positioned favorably.

The uprising of robust working-class supplemented by growing urbanization across the globe would act as a key driver for the market.

Consumers purchase bakery or confectionary items along with snacks and savory products to satisfy the long ordeal of mouthfeel or eye feel. The role of shortening in such products allows the end-users to feel “happy” or “content” or “satisfied” post-consumption. Shortbread cookies for example easily melt in one’s mouth or would crumble if pressed between the fingers too tight. The role of shortening is to separate pie dough from water, thereby creating air pockets that make these products extremely flaky and tasty as well. The growing urbanization trends have applied to extensive stress and sedentary lifestyles. Hence, consumers are looking to satisfy their food cravings from such products, to reduce anxiety-depression and various other reasons. As for urbanization, around 10% of the population lives in cities by 1900, which grew to >58% in 2016 to more than 75% by 2050. The trends dictate that human stress would only grow and supplement the market.

Shortenings Market Challenges

The awareness pertaining to the harmful effects of fat and consumers' approach to being label-conscious have impeded the market growth.

Consumers have become increasingly concerned about the ingredients, particularly if it has fat amounts. Moreover, the predominant ingredients which are used for shortening are high in various fats, which can negatively impact one’s health. Even consumers who are looking for vegan options such as Coconut oil have to be wary of the various ill-effects such alternatives might present. Coconut oil is 90% saturated fat, which is even higher than butter (64%) or lard (40%). The said factors can lead to an increment of LDL or bad cholesterol levels. The population is soaring with high LDLs as nearly 94 million US adults have cholesterols above 200mg/dl while 28 million adults have had it above 240mg/dl. Owing to such health ailments, the market’s growth has been impeded.

Shortenings Industry Outlook

Product launches, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and geographical expansions are key strategies adopted by players in the shortening market. The top 10- shortening market companies are-

1. Archer Daniels Midland Company,
2. AAK AB,
3. Bunge Limited,
4. Manildra Group,
5. Ventura Foods, LLC,
6. International Foodstuff Company Holdings Limited,
7. Cargill,
8. Wilmar International Limited,
9. Associated British Foods,
10. ConAgra Brands

Recent Developments

• In February 2019, Nature Fresh Professional launched its wide range of shortening products across the Kerala Market-India. The offerings of the company would include Elite-Supreme-Select-Delight-Classic- and also a range of Margarine such as Champion, Master, and Genius. The company has a clear vision to provide good quality ingredients to the bakers. Making this launch more engaging, the brand organized a technical session with Thiruvananthapuram- and Kozhikode-based bakers, making it educative and interactive.
• In February 2019, Cargill has launched a palm oil shortening line for bakery food products and the line would be given as Palm-Agility. The company said palm oil helps to reduce brittleness across a broader range of temperatures and can be easily stored without losing workability or texture. PalmAgility has a smoother and creamier texture than regular palm oil shortenings, and therefore means faster mixing times and better incorporation of ingredients, the company said.

Relevant Titles

Modified Starch Market- Forecast (2022-2027)
Report Code- FBR 0041

Edible Oil Market- Forecast (2022-2027)
Report Code- FBR 0180 

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