Apac colourings market growing by almost 5% annually

Asia’s food colourings market will grow to over half a billion dollars by 2019 at a time when India is struggling to break away from the synthetic products it traditionally uses in favour of natural colourings.

According to research by MicroMarketMonitor, Asia-Pacific has been seeing growth in the segment from US$406m in 2013 to an expected US$540m by 2019, at an annual rate of 4.8%.

India is behind the lion’s share of the region’s growth, its food market spurred by an increasing population and rising disposable incomes. 

While there is still rampant use of unauthorised colourings in Indian food processing, the use of synthetic products has been in decline to the benefit of higher-priced natural counterparts—albeit only gradually.

MicroMarketMonitor predicts this change will occur over a long period of time. 

Asia-Pacific is dominated by a large number of small producers and distributors of colourings, though Danish major Chr. Hansen is one of the fastest-emerging players in the market. 

American FMC Corporation currently leading the region’s colouring market with share of 16.7% in 2014. 

In terms of application, the frozen meat products segment is projected to have the biggest share of the Asia-Pacific market until 2014.

Rising demand from Australia and New Zealand is also expected to drive growth in the region over the period.