Ready Meals in Peru

PROSPECTS

High unit price is a barrier for penetration

Despite strong growth towards the end of the review period, ready meals remained a niche in 2019. Cooking with fresh ingredients, instead of purchasing ready meals, is cheaper in Peru.

Peruvian tradition favours freshly prepared meals, with ready meals often regarded unfavourably

Peruvians tend to cook their meals at home on a daily basis, using fresh ingredients which they also purchase every day from traditional small grocery retailers or market stalls. More affluent families purchase weekly from supermarkets or hypermarkets, which have a large variety of fresh products such as fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry or seafood.

Dried ready meals are increasingly popular with more options becoming available

Dried ready meals recorded strong growth in 2019 as more options became available, including different kinds of pastas with sauces and flavoured rice. Consumers believe that these meals become fresh at the moment they are prepared, whilst householders can add special touches to differentiate them, such as for example natural chili or olive oil.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

New products and new manufacturers enter ready meals

Towards the end of the review period, new products entered ready meals, offering innovation such as frozen ready meals or shelf stable ready meals based on quinoa as well as tamales, which are now available in metal cans or in stand-up pouches. Interestingly, most manufacturers are not specifically dedicated to producing ready meals; it is usually an extension of their core business, such as Pesquera Hayduk, which is mainly dedicated to shelf stable seafood, or DanPer Trujillo, which originally was an agroindustry player.

The 5cina brand is withdrawn

The 5cina brand by San Fernando was withdrawn in 2019. This company offered frozen ready meals with traditional Peruvian recipe dishes such as fried rice (chaufa), meat and rice and others.

Underdeveloped category due to poor reputation

Ready meals remained a niche in 2019, representing marginal share of overall packaged food. There are areas of ready meals that have not been explored such as chilled lunch kits, chilled pizza, chilled ready meals and dinner mixes.

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