Turkey rising

Turkey's birth rate is among the highest in Western Europe. By 2015, its population will have increased to almost 83 million, overtaking that of Germany, currently the region's most heavily populated country.

 Although it is the 45–49-year-old segment of the population which enjoys the highest average annual gross income, couples with young children have the highest per household expenditure. Almost half of Turkey’s population is below the age of 25 and couples with children make up about two-thirds of total households.

In the country's urban centres, middle-class consumers are keen to adopt European trends, and are quickly developing a taste for functional foods and drinks fortified with vitamins and minerals. Such products are particularly popular with mothers of young children.

Probiotic yoghurt

Yoghurt is one of the cornerstones of Turkish food tradition, forming part of virtually every meal. Well over half of all yoghurt consumed in the country is of artisanal or homemade origin, which is why sales of packaged yoghurt are so much lower than the Western European average. However, this pattern is gradually shifting as Turkish women are increasingly pushed for time, and, in addition to the convenience factor, packaged yoghurts are also perceived as more hygienic by many.

Packaged fruited spoonable yoghurts with added vitamins, in particular, are winning over mothers in their millions. Turkish mothers do not skimp on feeding their children the most nutritious products they can afford. In February 2007, Pinar Gida, one of the country's most established dairy product companies, launched the Pinar Yopi brand, fortified with protein, calcium, iron, vitamin B12 and vitamin D. The product claims to benefit the mental development of children under the age of six. Other dairy players followed suit with similarly positioned products, many of which now also feature the magic brain booster omega-3.

However, the market situation for probiotic yoghurts, which is a massive hit in the rest of Western Europe, is not exactly something to write home about.

Functional drinking yoghurt was introduced by Danone in Turkey in 2006 with the launch of its cholesterol-lowering Danacol brand. Initial category value sales clocked in at TL11 million (US$33 million), but only a year later the company suddenly withdrew Danacol from the market, with the explanation that sales had been below expectations and that the Turkish market was not yet ready for this type of product.

This move left Danone's only competitor in this stagnant category, Ülker Gida, in a position of complete dominance with its Kalbim brand. This company's strategy appears to be to just tough it out, convinced that success will ensue in the medium to long term.

Kefir revival

One of the reasons why functional drinking yoghurt, in general, is finding it hard to get off the ground is the fairly recent revival of kefir. Kefir is a traditional probiotic sour milk drink popular in Eastern Europe, with a long history in Turkish culture. However, unlike in Eastern Europe, it had fallen into virtual obscurity in Turkey. 

Finally, in 2004, the local dairy company Altinkilic Sut Urunleri AS kick-started this latent category by launching Altinkilic Kefir. The media picked up on this, and immediately began to promote kefir as a drink with significant health benefits. Many other players followed, and sour milk drink value sales rose 10-fold from TL7 million in 2004 to TL70 million (US$53 million) in 2009. 

Slimming product

Turkey's obesity statistics are quite disconcerting. According to Euromonitor International Countries and Consumers data, the country ranked third highest in the European obesity league table, behind Belarus and the UK, with 22.6% of its population weighing in with a BMI of 30 and above in 2009.

Consequently Turkey is now the region's most dynamic market for meal replacement slimming products. Category value sales increased by almost 300% to TL33 million (US$25 million). Direct seller Herbalife dominates the market, claiming a 92% value share in 2008.

Although some retail brands were also available, many consumers distrust these products as potentially damaging to health. Based on its global direct selling experience and a strategy which is essentially built on the trust relationship between seller and buyer, Herbalife has done an exemplary job in marketing its Formul 1 Besleyici Shake Karisimi, Shapeworks and Thermo Complete brands to Turkish consumers.

Olive oil

Turkish cuisine relies on prodigious quantities of oils and fats. And although cutting down is difficult when the authenticity of dishes is meant to be preserved, there is a definite shift towards healthier types of oil. For instance, margarine sales remained utterly stagnant over the review period, butter's performance was almost equally sluggish, but the functional spreadable oils and fats category saw 45% growth, reaching a respectable TL257 million (US$192 million) in 2009, and surpassing sales of margarine. Clearly, this is an entirely health-driven trend.

In addition, value sales of olive oil rocketed by 126% over the review period to TL850 million (US$636 million) in 2009, fuelled, in part, by a buoyant private label offering, the share of which jumped from 1% in 2007 to 9% in 2008. Specifically, the hard discounter BIM (Turkey's leading discounter with 50% of the discounter channel's value sales) offers olive oil at rock bottom prices. Furthermore, it is worth noting that sales of refined olive oils are declining, while demand for higher-quality olive oil, such as virgin olive oil, is going up – further evidence that Turkish consumers are taking note when it comes to what is healthy.

100% juice

In soft drinks, the fruit and vegetable juice category delivered a remarkable performance – off-trade volume sales more than doubled between 2003 and 2008 to 674 million litres, chiefly driven by 100% fruit and vegetable juice, which soared by 238%, reaching 58 million litres. Turkish consumers have grown increasingly savvy about what is in their juices, which prompted many companies to launch products with no added preservatives or sugar. In particular, consumers are starting to demand products with a higher fruit content, which is reflected in the astronomic growth of the 100% juice category. Although such products are more expensive than juice drinks or nectars, mothers are more than willing to pay a premium to serve a nutritious drink to their children. 

In hot drinks, chocolate-based flavoured powder drinks registered a strong growth performance, with a value sales increase of 63% between 2003 and 2008. These products are solely targeted at children, and recent marketing activity which highlighted the fact that they were fortified with vitamins and minerals made them even more attractive to parents. It is interesting to note that these products are not only used to make hot drinks, but are also popular as cake and chocolate dessert ingredients. 

Female-targeted VDS products

In the vitamins and dietary supplements sector, female-specific formulations began to gain importance from 2007 onwards, with many new launches focusing on fertility and menopausal benefits. Heavy promotion of these products in women's magazines, in addition to being recommended by many doctors and pharmacists, is partly the reason why multivitamin sales almost doubled over the review period to TL115 million (US$91 million). Multivitamins account for 40% of total VDS sales.

As to be expected considering Turkey's child- and family-oriented health and wellness market focus, child-specific vitamins and dietary supplements achieved the highest value sales growth of 110% over the 2003-2008 review period, reaching value sales of TL18 million (US$14 million) in 2008. Child-specific vitamin C preparations are the most popular kind. 

At the moment, there is virtually either no market or only a very tiny market in Turkey for several of the VDS categories, which are hugely popular in most other Western European countries. These include eye health supplements, St John's wort, glucosamine and co-enzyme Q10. Of course, it is obvious that these types of products mainly appeal to more or less affluent, fairly well educated, mature and elderly consumers – a demographic which is not very prominent in Turkey.

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