Asia Pulse: Full Year 2021

Asia: In-home groceries post a continued growth in 2021 

FMCG spending for in-home consumption in Asia continues to grow by 3.2% in the second year of the pandemic, higher than the growth of 2.9% in 2020, reported in our latest issue of Asia Pulse.

The market growth is mainly driven by the rebound of Beverages sector, particularly in Chinese Mainland.

FMCG performance across sectors, in general, enjoyed healthy growth. Dairy and Personal Care showed an improved growth in North Asia while flatting or slowing down in other areas. Meanwhile, Food and Home Care cooled down its year-on-year growth pace after last year’s pick-up.

In terms of retail landscape, Online kept the good momentum in 2021 with a robust increase in both FMCG value sales and number of purchases across the region.

Reviewing the performance of each market in-depth, the report reveals some key insights:

• Chinese Mainland: The growth in e-commerce channels slowed down in 2021 due to the traffic peaking and diversion from the new digital formats.
• Taiwan: Ecommerce kept growing with double-digit growth over years and is now the 3rd largest channel in Taiwan FMCG market since shoppers are getting used to shop online.
• South Korea: Personal Care especially skincare products showed an upsurge in value thanks to the increased demand for skin recovery.
• India (Urban): Consumers made more shopping trips yet less spend in each trip, rationalizing their spends by shifting to small packs.
• Indonesia: Shoppers have spent more on home-cooking categories, such as cooking oil and sesame oil, with major growth coming from the online channel.
• Malaysia: FMCG sustained at a higher level after double digit growth in 2020 with Packaged Foods being the fast growing sector.
• Thailand: Consumers continue to purchase larger basket sizes while reducing shopping trips as the stock up trend remains during COVID-19.
• The Philippines: Filipinos continue to prioritize food staples and home & hygiene essentials, but they also deprioritized some categories already stocked up in 2020 such as baking products.
• Vietnam: Convenient retail formats including Online and Minimarket kept winning consumers' choice amid the social distancing periods.