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Snacking on Success: Snack Food Exports Claim Another Record
U.S. snack food exporters are
facing stiffer competition these days, but foreign market
opportunities haven't
gone stale. U.S. exports set another record in fiscal 1997,
increasing nearly 10 percent to $1.25 billion. Since 1990, export
value has risen more than 160 percent, even with the more modest
gains of the last few years. Canada, the No. 1 U.S. market, is
still growing at a crisp pace as tariffs and other restrictions
continue to decline under NAFTA. Mexico went into a slump after
its 1994/95 economic crisis, but jumped 39 percent in 1997 to $91
million. Sales to both the European Union (EU) and Japan were
down last year, although Finland emerged as a sizeable buyer
within the EU, taking a record $22 million in U.S. snacks, up
from $8 million just two years earlier.
While a few leading markets
are showing less snap, new opportunities are developing in many
smaller markets as the snacking habit spreads. Among the
fast-growing smaller markets over the last three years are the
six shown in the chart. U.S. snack food exports to each of these
countries set a new record in fiscal 1997. Records were also set
in a number of even tinier markets, such as Panama, Malaysia, the
United Arab Emirates, Israel, Jamaica and several others. Besides
the growing competition, however, there's the added concern that
Asia's current economic
problems and the stronger U.S. dollar may dim near-term prospects
in some of the once-hottest emerging markets.
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Source: U.S. Bureau of Census trade data. Snack food exports
include potato and corn chips, popcorn, candies and candy bars,
sweet pastries, pretzels and various other salty snacks.
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