Today's consumers are starting to care more about what they eat. There is a growing demand for products that provide additional health benefits. At the same time, consumers are interested in new products and listen to opinions about the dangers of individual ingredients - lactose or gluten. This creates new consumer preferences and fuels interest in the category of milk analogs.
Lactose is a carbohydrate found in milk and dairy products. We will do without detailed descriptions of this milk sugar, this is not why you came here. Lactose is not a terrible animal - it is useful, but in people with pathological intolerance it causes discomfort and allergies.
The percentage of people with intolerances, according to our calculations, in Russia is about 16-18%, not enough - they agree.
But the number of consumers of milk analogs includes not only people with allergies and congenital untranslability, but vegans - who do not eat food of animal origin, followers of fashion (healthy people), Orthodox people (who do not drink milk during the fasting period) and supporters of the animal welfare movement - and so it comes out already 21%. The big market is like the population of Nizhny Novgorod.
What did the manufacturers come up with?
They began to actively occupy an empty niche and the market for milk analogues was divided into plant and animal products.
Vegetable, especially soy, almond, coconut, oat and rice counterparts quickly won the love of consumers, they are sold not only in retail chains, but also in all coffee shops, restaurants and hotels. And this aroused even greater interest in analogs, people wanted to drink not just cappuccino, but - cappuccino on almond, not just "latte", but - "latte with coconut milk, please."
Yes, of course, vegetable milk is very different in price from traditional milk and not everyone can afford to drink coffee with "exotic" milk every morning. However, this does not prevent the growing demand for these products and the formation of their own class of consumers: the solvent population, striving for unusual and healthy products.
And there are also other analogues - animals. Here the consumer is offered the same milk, but without lactose. The same smell, taste, color - but completely hypoallergenic product. But here it is impossible to trace the same dynamics of development, such milk is preferred only by those who, due to their physical characteristics, do not drink traditional milk, but really want it.
But now it cannot be said that manufacturers have completely occupied the lactose-free segment. Despite the fact that there are more "dairy products", consumers say that their demand for such products is not satisfied. Until now, such products are not presented in all cities, and even more so in a small number of stores.
Herbal drinks continue to gain momentum in the world and have already moved from a niche segment to a full-fledged product category. In physical terms, over the past year, Russians have already drunk more than seven million liters of "dairy-free", which is almost 4-5 times more than a year ago. According to forecasts, by the end of 2022, the market for herbal substitutes for cow's milk will add 7.1% in value terms. Yes, we can say that while the share of this segment is still small, and the growth is significant due to the low base effect. But we must not forget that consumer demand has become more individualized and demanding in relation to many categories, and dairy products are only part of the overall stream here.