BMi Research drinking yoghurt report in South Africa

The value of the drinking yoghurt market increased in 2015, due primarily to category inflation, rather than volume growth. The Rand per litre price saw an increase for 2014. It is believed that this price increase was driven by reduced availability of raw milk combined with consistent material demand, thus increasing overall production costs.

The industry saw an interesting trend within the Limpopo region, whereby increased demand from customers caused the upgrading of systems and factories. The trend of increased demand in the smaller, less urbanised regions is being felt across many beverage categories, as metropolitan areas such as Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape border on market saturation.

The carton pack type saw the loss of the 500ml carton within drinking yoghurt. This was replaced instead by the 1 litre pack size, which is expected to grow by double digit figures over the coming years as players push this new pack size and type combination.

The wholesale channel saw the largest growth in drinking yoghurt consumption in 2014, as smaller players drove volumes in this channel. Export also saw a larger increase than the other channels, though it should be borne in mind that this is off a smaller base and thus doesn't have a significant influence on the overall market size.

The market is expected to grow moving into 2015.