According to the “GCC Food Market: Insights & Forecast with Potential Impact of COVID-19 (2021-2025),” a report released by Research and Markets, the market consumption is forecast to reach 51.28 million tons in 2025, experiencing growth at a CAGR of 3.15 percent from 2021 to 2025. This growth is due to the rising population, increasing awareness of healthy eating habits and greater food consumption. However, the increasing food prices, unfavorable climatic conditions and increased dependency on food imports will represent challenging factors that might hinder growth.
When it comes to the GCC food market by production, it was valued at 13.65 million tons in 2020, experiencing growth at a CAGR of 1.92 percent from 2016 to 2020. This growth is linked to the various initiatives taken by regional governments to boost production through implementing organic farming as well as artificial and technology-enabled processes across the food value chain.
Trends to keep an eye on include growing demand for organic food, technological advancements aiding food production, demand for packaged and convenience foods, key developments to improve food supply and major merger and acquisition deals in the GCC food industry.
In 2020, the dominant share of the market was held by Saudi Arabia, which is home to a population with significant levels of wealth and high disposable incomes.
