Ready-to-eat meals are increasingly eaten ‘on the go’
Another core ingredient needed to understand
The ready-to-eat sector is another core ingredient needed to understand the way Thai households are cooking and consuming.
Like many of the considerations about what people cook and eat at home, there are significant differences between urban and rural areas. Urbanites buy ready-to-eat food to consume when they are away from the house (with this up around a third from the previous year); people in rural regions however eat these products at home, with 70% purchasing this type of meal – an indication of a significant shift towards convenience cooking and possibly cost-saving.
We also see a paradox in this market; people are buying more ready-to-eat food, but the value of the market is declining because the figures are based on home consumption and don’t for the growing number of urbanites who buy from this category but eat the meals away from home.
But the underlying message for food brands is that it is important to understand what people like to eat and what encourages them to cook - as well as the barriers that prevent them doing so.
