Cooking is still core to family life
But Thais opt for simple recipes
Adding context to the picture requires understanding both how much people cook, as well as the type of meals they prepare.
Life stages strongly influence how predisposed people are to spend time in the kitchen. Young people cook less than other demographics while – unsurprisingly - having a baby sees families gravitate towards preparing meals at home far more often, with this decreasing as children grow up. Older people also favour home cooking more frequently. (This knowledge also indicates that the picture will continue to change as we witness a younger generation that is having fewer children, meaning they are less likely to get into the habit of cooking at home every day.)
The topline figure of the current study is that more than half of Thai people cook almost every day, and around a third do so between one and four times a week; only a small proportion say they don’t cook at home at all. Almost a third of respondents say they cook at home more than last year and more than half report it is about the same; only 16% say they cook less.
These figures indicate that the amount of cooking staples being bought should go up, but distinguishing between the different types of meals that people are making sheds light on why this is not the case.
While consumers report doing the same amount or more cooking, 70% say they prefer preparing less complicated menus (potentially due to factors such as time constraints, the desire for convenience, and a lack of advanced cooking skills). These easy-to-make meals tend to require fewer cooking staples, which will therefore reduce the size of the food preparation sector.
(Half the households surveyed also report buying cheaper products than a year ago - so even if they are cooking more, items cost less causing the value of the market to shrink.)
