New York, NY, 10 July 2008: Fruit beverages, long a staple of Americans' beverage diet, have struggled to keep up with changes in the marketplace, the latest edition of Beverage Marketing Corporation's Fruit Beverages in the U.S. shows. With consumers increasingly turning to other categories, fruit beverages have strained to grow. Indeed, for several years, volume has relentlessly declined.
In 2007, fruit beverage volume in the U.S. declined for the fourth straight year. It fell to 3.9 billion gallons from 4.0 billion gallons in 2006. The 3.0% decrease in 2007 followed declines of 2.4% in 2006 and 1.6% in 2005, as well as a decline of 0.8% in 2004.
Fruit juices consistently constitute the largest portion of the fruit beverage marketplace. However, in recent years, fruit drinks beverages containing less than 100% juice have enlarged their share of the fruit beverage marketplace. In each of the last nine years, fruit drinks outperformed the total fruit beverage market. This has been no special accomplishment of late, as fruit juice volume has declined for seven straight years.Further, fruit drinks have declined in the past three years, but were able to gain share by decreasing at a slower rate than 100% juice. In 2005, fruit drinks and fruit juice both declined for the first time in at least 25 years.Drinks declined by 0.8% and juice by 2.3%. Fruit drink volume fell again in 2006, declining by 1.2%, but fruit juice still dropped at a greater rate (3.4%). In 2007, fruit juice volume dropped by 3.6% while fruit drinks fell by 2.3%. Despite losing 3.4 share points since 2002, 100% juice still accounted for nearly 55% of the fruit beverage market in 2007.
The fruit beverage markets performance has been marred by price hikes, competition from other categories, and weak innovation. The relative strength of drinks, and the corresponding weakness of juice, is no doubt due to a proliferation of new fruit drink products as well as their slightly lower price points.
In the 2000s, per capita fruit beverage consumption has declined along with total industry volume. In 2007, the typical American drank an estimated 12.9 gallons of fruit beverages, down from 13.4 gallons the year before and 13.9 gallons in 2005. The per capita level in 2007 was the lowest since 1990s 12.3 gallons.
Despite the overall decline, some sub-segments of the fruit beverage market did grow, the study shows. For example, among chilled, ready-to-serve 100% juices, ciders posted a strong 5.9% increase. Coincidentally, shelf-stable cranberry juice cocktails also posted a 5.9% increase. There were also bright spots for certain distribution channels in specific areas of the fruit beverage market.