• Asia’s population growth rate has been declining since 1987.
• COVID has made matters worse, with financial turmoil and soaring death rates.
• Does this mean Asian sugar consumption will struggle to grow?

Asia’s Population Growth Rate Hits 34-Year Low 

• Asia’s population growth rate has been declining since 1987.

• Asia’s average age of marriage has increased from 25 (2015) to 30 in (2020).
• With this, birth rates have slowed as more women are having just one child (due to their age).

• This is prevalent in India, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Bangladesh which, when combined, account for 26% of the world’s population and 44% of the Asian population.

• However, their population growth rates fell by between 0.02 and 0.05% year-on-year in 2020.

COVID Hasn’t Helped… 

• Death tolls have soared through the pandemic, especially in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Myanmar.
• Although vaccination programmes are now being delivered, the number of cases and deaths remains high in many Asian countries.

What Does This Mean for Sugar Consumption? 

• Asia consumed 59.7m tonnes of sugar in 2020, down 3.8% year-on-year.
• With the hospitality industry virtually out of action, out-of-home sugar consumption took a serious blow.
• Ongoing COVID restrictions, from curfew to lockdown, mean sugar consumption is recovering at a slow rate.

• We think Asia will consume 61.1m tonnes of sugar in 2021, up 2.2% year-on-year.
• However, we don’t think consumption will return to pre-COVID levels until 2022, when it should consume 62.9m tonnes.
• That said, the food delivery industry has picked up, especially in South-East Asia.
• The industry could be worth $8 billion in 2025, up $6 billion from 2018 as people are now used to working from home and eating in.
• Globally, it’s already worth more than $35 billion, and could be worth $365 billion by 2030.

• This growth could help support sugar consumption in Asia and elsewhere going forward.

Other Opinions You Might Be Interested In… 

• Chinese Sugar Consumption: Hardly Growing by 2030 
• Chinese Sugar Consumption Recovers Alongside Vaccine Rollout 

Explainers You Might Be Interested In… 

• Czapp Explains: The Chinese Sugar Industry