In contrast to most other ready meal types, demand for chilled ready meals packaging declined during 2020. While chilled ready meals still accounted for the largest share of packaging unit volumes in ready meals, they lost ground to products with a longer shelf life, such as frozen, shelf stable and dried ready meals.
Shelf stable ready meals enjoyed an extremely successful year in 2020, with consumers appreciating the convenience, long expiry date and easy preparation of these types of ready meal. However, the category declined in 2021 as demand was not as strong as in 2020, when stockpiling was at its highest.
The use of microwaveable packaging by major convenience store chains, particularly 7-Eleven and Family Mart, for their private label products has been particularly significant in boosting demand for this type of packaging. During the latter part of the review period, Seven & I Holdings launched microwaveable retort pouches for 11 items – five curries, three pasta dishes and three rice bowls – in its 7-Eleven convenience stores and Ito-Yokado supermarkets.
Even after Japan has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of ready meals are not expected to return to their pre-COVID-19 growth rates, with slow, almost stagnating, annual unit volume increases expected. While chilled ready meals is expected to see very modest annual growth rates, it will still add the most unit volumes over the forecast period, given it remains been the most popular format for ready meals in Japan.
Convenience will remain the biggest influence on ready meals packaging during the forecast period. Pack types with convenient and cost-effective closures, such as microwaveable cups with peel-off plastic thin film, will increasingly be preferred by the leading players and consumers in ready meals.
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Understand the latest market trends and future growth opportunities for the Ready Meals Packaging industry in Japan with research from Euromonitor International's team of in-country analysts – experts by industry and geographic specialisation.
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This is the aggregation of canned/preserved, chilled pizza, chilled, dinner mixes, dried, frozen pizza, frozen ready meals and prepared salads. Note: Ready meals are products that have had recipe ''skills'' added to them by the manufacturer, resulting in a high degree of readiness, completion and convenience. Ready meals are generally accepted to be complete meals that require few or no extra ingredients, however, in the case of canned/preserved ready meals, the term also encompasses meal ''centres’; for dinner mixes, the term encompasses part meals. Some ready meals may require cooking; others may simply need reheating, prior to serving.
See All of Our DefinitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Ready Meals Packaging research and analysis database.
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