10 Key Trends in Food in 2010 Report

10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health for this year by industry expert Julian Mellentin

1. Digestive health - a mega-trend moves beyond the tipping point
2. An intrinsic health benefit that's also convenient
3. Feel the benefit - the most powerful marketing message
4. Energy - a world of untapped opportunities
5. Fruit and superfruit - the future of food and health
6. Antioxidants - big in America, dead in Europe?
7. Weight management
8. Healthy snacking
9. Packaging and premiumisation
10. Bones and movement

Digestive health continues to be the biggest trend. Its importance to consumers has been underscored by the impressive growth rates of digestive health brands, with sales of even premium brands increasing by 10%-20% during the recession. And yet digestive health still has huge areas of untapped potential in most countries around the world, especially for fibre fortified products and products in the beverage and cereal categories.

Bones and Movement enters our top-10 trends this year for the first time. It's a trend that has been gathering momentum thanks to the increasing number of people over the age of 40, who have more reason to be aware of the health of their bones and joints. It's a niche that is getting bigger fast and it's a significant area of opportunity in every continent - and one that has not been fully exploited anywhere except in Asia.

The 'feel the benefit' advantage of the Elations joint health brand means that it is set for sales of $55 million (?37 million) in 2010, compared to just $15 million (?10 million) two years ago. Offering a benefit that people can feel 'has been shown to be an incredibly meaningful claim," said a spokesperson for Elations.

'Whatever the benefit your brand is offering, it's key to make sure there is a clear benefit platform and that consumers can quickly feel or measure or experience the benefit - that's how people see they're getting value for money," Mellentin observes.

Each year since 1995, industry expert Julian Mellentin has forecast and analyzed trends in food, nutrition and health. Each trend analysis in this report includes a short bullet-point summary of the trend and of the key factors we believe can contribute to enduring success.

For more information please click on:
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/e84e76/10_key_trends_in_food_nutrition_health_201
This year the report also includes 7 Micro-Trends. These are:

1. Protein power
2. Kids' nutrition
3. New life for heart-health and cholesterol-lowering?
4. Probiotics' new prospects
5. Immunity - a great claim that's hard to use
6. Fresh start for omega-3?
7. Beauty an ultra-niche opportunity

Source Research and Markets and Agfood

Agricultural investment funds continue increasing fundraising

Following on the success of its first fund, which raised $18 million of investable capital, Agcapita launched Agcapita Farmland Fund II. Agcapita Farmland Fund II conducted its first closing on February 28th 2010 with a follow-up closing scheduled to take place March 26th 2010. Agcapita Farmland Fund II is Canada’s only RRSP and TFSA eligible farmland investment vehicle with a minimum investment of $5,000.

Stephen Johnston, partner at Agcapita Partners LP, commented that "We believe that investing in farmland directly and renting it back to farmers is the lower risk way to gain exposure to increasing agricultural commodity prices and improving operating margins of farming businesses. Farmland returns, unlike the operating returns of farms, are not particularly volatile and have over the long term produced consistent real returns.”

Agcapita is a Calgary based agriculture focused private equity firm which manages RRSP and TFSA eligible farmland investment funds and is part of a family of funds focussing on commodity linked, hard asset investments with over $100 million in assets under management. Agcapita’s investment team has over 50 years of private/public markets, investment and finance experience and its field team has over 150 years of direct farming experience.

Source PRnet

The State of Food and Agriculture 2009 FAO

In this new FAO release of the World State of Food and Agriculture sent by one of our Blog readers, the livestock global evolution is analyzed. Livestock contribute 40 percent of the global value of agricultural output and support the livelihoods and food security of almost a billion people. Rapidly rising incomes and urbanization, combined with underlying population growth,are driving demand for meat and other animal products in many developing countries.

Main conclusions were

• The livestock sector is expanding rapidly, driven by population growth, rising affluence and urbanization.

• Decisive action is required if increasing demand is to be met in ways that are environmentally sustainable and contribute to poverty alleviation and improved human health.

• The contribution of the livestock sector to poverty alleviation should be enhanced through appropriate policy reform and investments within a framework of broader rural development policies.

• Governance of the livestock sector should be strengthened to ensure that its development is environmentally sustainable and that it both adapts to and contributes to mitigating climate change.

• The neglect of animal-health systems in many parts of the world must be redressed, and producers at every level must be involved in the development of animal-disease and food-safety programmes.

For the complete report click here

The Future of Chinese currency and impact on Ag commerce

Discussions on how much the Yuan and the Remimbi should appreciate jointly with opinons about Dollar and Euro crisis are increasing the debate on the future of currencies. Chinese policy makers said they look for medium and long term while Americans and Europeans pressure for short term adjustment to correct trade imbalance

Find here interesting opinons of different experts on China policy and how they see the evolution of Chinese currency. This evolution will have significative importance for all countries and companies involved in global agricultural commerce