Euromonitor's global health and wellness research expands - new insight into Middle East, Asia and Latin America

Ewa Hudson, Global Head of Health and Wellness Market Research for Euromonitor explains: "We are expanding our research to countries that have a growing interest in health and wellness products. The Egyptian younger generation seems more concerned about health, making sales of low calories beverages rising. We aim to capture the emerging trends in global healthy eating."

Egypt:

• The younger generation (people under the age of 35, accounting for 75% of the population) have started taking interest in what they perceive as 'health' products. Sales of low calorie beverages such as Coca-Cola Light and Zero are increasing, although they still account for only 6% of overall Coca-Cola volume sales. Similarly, Nestlé's Nescafé is available as a line of decaffeinated instant coffee, although this only accounts for 4% of overall instant coffee volume sales and just 1% of overall coffee sales.
• Some juice companies, notably Juhayna, have launched a premium range of 100% juice products with no added sugar. However the cost of these products remains prohibitive to the majority of the population.
• With the economic forecast for the next five years still uncertain, it seems unlikely that companies will be willing to invest substantially in health and wellness - comparatively moderate growth of 18% is expected between 2012 and 2017 in constant value terms.