The global convenience food market is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR to the year 2020. Emerging markets may even experience double-digit growth rates in significant categories. We all know that busy lifestyles, ageing populations, convenience, innovation, longer shelf life and ease of use are the cornerstones of modern convenience food. Conversely, technology and packaging innovations are widening food choices available to market in various frozen, chilled and packaged forms.

As a busy working mom with two young children, I often find myself stocking up on convenience items to tide us over when there just isn’t time to cook dinner. With more women in the workforce, the demand for convenience food is rising, primarily in emerging economies. The biggest threat to this sector in developing countries is the lack of proper storage and logistics. One of the major drivers for industry growth is widened distribution channels and the tendency to buy off-the-shelf.

Large multinational corporations follow multiple strategies to develop and penetrate the market for convenience products in different regions. Providing items that match local consumer taste is of utmost importance. A case in point is South African consumers’ insatiable appetite for all things crumbed and coated. In our convenience food processing feature, which starts on page 12, we unpack some of the latest value adding technology for this specialised sector. We also look at the growing market for robotics and automation and how innovative solutions in manufacturing efficiency depend on data, lots of data. More on
page 22.

If you haven’t yet safeguarded your processing or manufacturing facility with product recall and contamination insurance, our interest piece from Tony Webster of AON South Africa is an article not to be missed. Turn to page 23 for the real facts behind the insurance hype.

There has been a lot of concern about our wine industry in the face of the drought in the Western Cape. Beverage Review looks at how Distell is tackling this challenge with a focus on water saving strategies, advances in vine planting programmes and drought resistant grape varietals (page 30).

We end this edition with an article on Novus Holdings’ increased capacity as well as an update on the metal packaging industry with new Metpac-SA CEO Kishan Singh in PACKAGING REVIEW.