Home-cooked meals have always been a central part of family life in Thailand – and the importance of this was highlighted during the pandemic.
But although people have returned to shops and restaurants, that doesn’t mean we’re seeing a mirror image of life before lockdown. Covid-19 permanently changed some daily habits.
Kantar Worldpanel set out to explore what this means for food brands in the Thailand Cooking Landscape Report 2024.
Some of the key findings of the research include:
- When buying food, consumers are choosing snacks and convenience items over and above cooking staples.
- Cooking is still a core party of daily life in Thailand, but people are opting for simpler recipes.
- Restaurants are seeing pre-pandemic numbers of customers, but on the home front people are still cooking less often than they did before lockdown.
- Takeaway food is an increasingly popular meal choice, particularly for those in urban areas, and this is disrupting the home cooking market.
- Ready-to-eat meals are also changing the landscape – with urbanites buying these to consume ‘on the go’, and shoppers in rural areas seeing them as a convenient way of having meals at home.
- Consumers need to balance budgeting and convenience, but also want to cook creatively.
Food manufacturers and brands reading the report will find out more about these trends and what is driving them. Armed with this in-depth research that decodes shoppers’ behaviour, they can create relevant offerings and effective strategies that enable them to nurture and grow their brands by remaining relevant in an ever-evolving world.
Read the full report in English or in Thai and reach out to our experts for further information.