What you need to know

The market for yellow fats and edible oils is estimated to be worth just over £1.53 billion in 2017, down 10% on its value back in 2012. Falling sales of spreads is the main reason for the decline in total sales. While increases in the price of butter and olive oil have provided a recent boost to the market value, driving new uses for products will be important for future growth.

Sales of butter and spreads have suffered from a decline in the eating of host foods, particularly bread that is being eaten on fewer occasions. Butter though has benefitted from a desire for more natural and less processed products. This has led brands in spreads to promote benefits such as being dairy-free, free from artificial ingredients and having added vitamins in order to try and fight back.

In edible oils, speciality oils have been seeing an increase in sales, including coconut and cold-pressed rapeseed oils, while avocado oil is also being seen in more oils and spreads. Cooking oil sprays are tapping into health and convenience trends, but can also be more cost effective in cooking. Such formats, as well as more premium and infused oils, offer scope for increasing sales.

Products covered in this Report

This Report covers the UK retail market for yellow fats and edible oils.

Yellow fats include butter, margarine and spreads, including cooking fats intended for cooking or baking.

For the purposes of this Report, spreadable butter (including variants with vegetable oil) and ‘light’ butter are included as butter in the market segmentation.

Edible oils include vegetable oil (which is usually rapeseed) and single-seed oils such as sunflower and corn, plus olive oil (including extra virgin), along with cold-pressed rapeseed, coconut, groundnut, walnut, sesame and other varieties of speciality oil, for use in domestic food preparation. Spray oils are also included.

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