Global Food Traceability Market - Analysis and Forecast (2017-2022)

Owing to the to the global increase in the number of food recalls and the rising concerns pertaining to food safety, the food traceability market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.56% through 2016 to 2022. The report is a compilation of the different segments of global food traceability market, including market breakdown by the application, technology, end users and geographical areas. Herein, the revenue generated from the application types, namely: meat, dairy, fresh produce and others; technology types, namely: RFID, GPS, barcodes and others; end users, namely: food manufacturers, retailers, warehouses and others; and geography, namely: North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World is tracked to calculate the overall market size. While highlighting the key driving and restraining forces for this market, the report also provides a detailed summary of the food traceability market. It also includes the key participants involved in the industry at the relevant sections.

The report puts a special emphasis on the market share of the different applications of food traceability technologies, owing to the changing paradigms in the industry. In spite of this, due to the weak technical systems and overlapping and conflicting demands, a majority of potential new entrants resist from adopting food traceability technologies. The reports further includes a thorough analysis of the impact of the five major forces to understand the overall attractiveness of the industry. The report also focuses on the revenue generated by the end users in the food traceability market.

The most often used strategy for developing a better hold on to the market has been through mergers & acquisitions, followed by business expansion. Moreover, the company profile section highlights significant information about the key companies involved along with their financial positions, key strategies & developmental activities of recent years.

Furthermore, the report includes an exhaustive analysis of the geographical split into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), and Rest of the World (RoW). Each geography details the individual push and pull forces in addition to the key players from that region. The prominent players operating in the global food traceability market are Bio-Rad Laboratories, C.H. Robinson, Cognex Corporation, E.I. DU PONT DE Nemours and Company, Infor, and SGS S.A among others.

The global increase in the number of food recalls has posed serious threats to the public health as well as to the growing economy. On an average, the direct cost of a product recall borne by the food company varies between $10 million to $12 million, in addition to the loss of sale and brand. The major concerns pertaining to food safety have put human life, industries, and companies at stake. Factually, for ensuring food safety and quality, the food industry addressed the management with the introduction of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), the International Organization of Standardization (ISO9001) and others. However, with the rise in the issues such as false labelling and the occurrence of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), also known as the mad cow disease, there has been a decline in the trust for the food products among the consumers within the food industry. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 48 million people in the U.S. get sick and 0.13 million are hospitalized each year due to foodborne illness. Moreover, as per the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) data of 1996-2010, most of the contamination is likely occurred during the process of growing, harvesting, manufacturing, packing, holding or transportation of food.

There has been an increasing demand of food supply documentation and tracking equipment among the consumers for tracking the supply of food products at every stage of production, processing, and distribution of food items. These demands consist of stringent solutions pertaining to food safety compliance within the food industry, resulting in the development of a reliable food traceability system.

A food traceability system helps in recording the process and the movement of food products such as meat or fresh produce through different tracking technologies such as RFIDs and barcodes in order to avoid food recalls. For instance, during the occurrence of a foodborne illness, the food traceability system provides an efficient assistance in the recall of the food product and in the investigation of the cause. Moreover, the systems help in increasing the reliability on the information, once it is transmitted and verified, assisting the consumers to purchase food products with a sense of security.

Traceability is gaining widespread recognition in developing and under developed countries, and therefore, tends to be global, dynamic and complex in nature. The market is expected to progress to a substantial extent due to the global population and food sufficiency concerns. The growth for this market is driven by factors such as improvement in the food recall process, ease of compliance in global regulation, greater visibility within the inventory system, improved return processes, and rapid shift in consumer preferences. However, the market consists of certain challenges which are inhibiting the overall growth for the global food traceability market overlapping and conflicting demand of food traceability systems, lack of unifying requirements, and weak technical system prohibiting rapid response time.

The food traceability market is expected to grow from $11.63 billion in 2016 to $16.09 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 5.56% from 2016 to 2022. This growth can be attributed to the rise in the food safety concerns within the food industry, which has led to an increase in the adoption of food traceability technologies across the globe.

An improved traceability system helps in facilitating international trade by assisting in keeping track of the food & other products being distributed outside the region. The concept of food traceability market revolves around meat traceability, dairy product traceability, fresh produce traceability, and other prevalent applications within the food traceability market. Further implementation of food traceability systems and technologies for the whole system is important for ensuring the efficiency and the effectiveness of the food supply chain management systems within the food industry. These include the Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), barcodes and other devices used in the food traceability systems.

The end users are divided into food manufacturers, retailers, warehouses or pack-farmers and others. The traceability systems are utilized by the end users, to ensure that the food products of good quality are delivered. The food traceability market holds a prominent share in various countries of North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), and Rest of the World (RoW).

The competitive landscape for the food traceability market demonstrates an inclination towards companies adopting strategies such as partnerships & collaborations, and business expansion, among others. The high growth potential and rapidly emerging technologies in the food sector are attracting various investors. Some of the key players in the industry include Zebra Technologies, C.H. Robinson, Bio-Rad Laboratories, and Cognex Corporation. These companies are aiming for more partnerships and collaborations and expansion activities to expand their operations and create hindrances for the new entrants from taking over the market. The established players in the markets are focusing more on partnerships & collaborations to make use of each other’s expertise.

There is a need for rapid adoption of traceability systems for reducing incidence related to food fraud, for lowering the impact of recalls and liability cost among the businesses, for waste reduction and for enhancement of brand confidence among the consumers. Moreover, the increasing effectiveness and the efficiency of the traceability systems across the supply chain have resulted in the rise of food safety and security concerns among the consumers. Currently, the companies within the food industry maintain a proper framework of business for optimum level of inventory and smooth operation; hence, the demand for food traceability technologies such as RFIDs and barcodes has been increasing worldwide.