Interventions to prevent and significantly reduce the prevalence of malnutrition among children in least developing countries traditionally focuses on children aged 0 to 5 years. However, growing consensus is that the greatest nutritional threat to children occurs during the infancy period from about 6 to 24 months of age. In this vein, the manufacture of baby food is one of the fastest growing industries in baby care and the overall fast moving consumer goods industry. The baby food market is segmented mainly into infant milk formula, baby cereals, follow-up formula and other products like baby juice, baby soup, and prepared baby food products. All of these products have witnessed significant growth in the past few years, growing from a value of US $ 50.7 billion in 2014 to US $ 72.7 billion in 2020.
At present, in many least developing countries including Zambia, commercial complementary infant nutrition of excellent quality is often imported. Mainly, sophisticated processing associated with infant nutrition, including expensive packaging, extensive promotion and advertising and the requirement for solid profit margins, make the prices of these baby products generally more expensive than the common staple infant nutrition. Importing complementary infant nutrition is not any cheaper. The current steep depreciation in the exchange rate in Zambia has led to increase in the price of imports in infant foods, most of the instant formulars are sourced outside making their price higher because of the depreciation of the kwacha.
High prices are usually beyond the purchasing power of the majority of the population, which spends already between half to three-quarters of its income on common foods. As a result, only a limited high-income group can afford these products. For lower income groups, access to low-cost ready-made complementary infant nutrition which is locally produced from indigenous ingredients presents an opportunity for baby food manufacturers. Despite the level of nutritious baby fo odproduction being limited, locally produced infant nutrition plays a key role in the fight against malnutrition and promotion of the production of infant foods using indigenous knowledge systems remains key.
Production of low-cost nutritious baby foods presently remains limited on account of several factors. Aside from lack of large-scale commercialisation of the local foods due to absence of research in the manufacture of complementary infant nutrition using indigenous knowledge systems, inadequate access to finance and other sources of funds for investments also play a cardinal role. Moreover, inability to employ qualified food nutritionists and other key professional personnel have affected large-scale commercialisation. Other key aspects are perception of the indigenous foods and cultural attitudes towards traditional infant products where some consumers tend to feel traditional food products are inferior.
Notably, prepared baby foods present a large market opportunity, as global demand for these foods is expected to have the fastest continuous annual growth rate into 2022. Among the key factors propelling the increased adoption of prepared baby food include growing time constraints among parents, rising population of working women and their concern for good nutrition for their babies. Furthermore, manufacturing of baby food under strict health and safety standards has helped create awareness about the usefulness of packaged baby foods in providing the required nutrition for babies. This in turn has escalated the demand for baby food in the world market. Additionally, baby food is gaining popularity in the high-income groups as a part of their status quo, especially in the emerging markets, which is expected to further drive the baby food market in emerging economies. Presently, demand for dried baby foods with nutritionally balanced content is a key factor driving the demand for dried baby food products market.
Some ZAM member companies have taken up the mantle of producing high quality baby foods. Big Tree Brands was the first producer of D’lite baby cereal and started its manufacturing in March 2010, tremendous growth has occurred, and it has turned out to be a leading supplier of baby cereal in Zambia. Seba Foods (Zambia) Ltd, produces corn and soya-based products the company’s aim is to become a market leader in the manufacturing of high-quality nutritious foods at affordable prices to consumers, institutions and industries in a broad range of industries. Java Foods is another leading producer of local nutritious foods. Their objective is to provide convenient, affordable and nutritious foods made from local products. Java’s vision is to become a leading food manufacturer in Southern Africa committed to providing high quality and nutritious food from local products at affordable prices.
In this regard, ZAM welcomes more establishment of SMEs that produce more local complementary nutritious foods, using ingredients like groundnuts, cassava, maize, avacado which are proved to have a high nutritional intake for prepared baby food. Government must work to facilitate investment in nutrition and provide incentives for businesses who produce highly nutritious foods to tap into markets serving low-income customers.
