Frozen ready meals was the main winner during the pandemic, recording strong double-digit percentage growth in its packaging unit volumes in both 2020 and 2021. This boosted the packaging unit volumes of folding cartons in these years, given it is the only pack type used in frozen ready meals.
The rate of growth in packaging units for chilled ready meals – paper-based containers – slowed in 2020, before slipping into negative territory in 2021, due in part to their relatively short shelf life. During the review period, some manufacturers of chilled ready meals leveraged packaging to differentiate their products from those of their rivals.
Private label products dominate ready meals in South Africa, so price competition is fierce and packaging tends to be rather basic. However, with more manufacturers launching branded products during the latter part of the review period, packaging is growing in importance as a point of differentiation for ready meals, as illustrated by Clover’s aforementioned The Whistling Chef range.
The packaging unit volumes of folding cartons used in chilled ready meals are expected to have poor growth prospects over 2021-2026. It is likely that some people will cook at home more, as this is more affordable than buying convenient ready meals, especially those with high prices, such as chilled ready meals.
The convenience of chilled and frozen pizza is expected to see these products’ packaging record relatively dynamic year-on-year unit volume increases, with frozen ready meals remaining the most dynamic performer in ready meals. The frozen ready meals performance has been helped by a number of players expanding their frozen ready meal offerings in recent times, including more family-size frozen ready meals to cater for families.
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Understand the latest market trends and future growth opportunities for the Ready Meals Packaging industry in South Africa with research from Euromonitor International's team of in-country analysts – experts by industry and geographic specialisation.
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This is the aggregation of canned/preserved, chilled pizza, chilled, dinner mixes, dried, frozen pizza, frozen ready meals and prepared salads. Note: Ready meals are products that have had recipe ''skills'' added to them by the manufacturer, resulting in a high degree of readiness, completion and convenience. Ready meals are generally accepted to be complete meals that require few or no extra ingredients, however, in the case of canned/preserved ready meals, the term also encompasses meal ''centres’; for dinner mixes, the term encompasses part meals. Some ready meals may require cooking; others may simply need reheating, prior to serving.
See All of Our DefinitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Ready Meals Packaging research and analysis database.
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