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Customers' Unmet Needs and Pains

Consumer Packaged Foods in Brazil — Current Pains Analysis

Brazilian consumers of packaged foods—both individuals (B2C) and institutions (B2B)—face an increasingly wide set of pains that stem from structural bottlenecks in the value-chain and from the rapid evolution of preferences. Integrating customer profiling, demand behaviour metrics, and “social-listening” signals, six major pain areas emerge:

  1. Price & Affordability
    • Commodity inflation, a cascading tax regime (up to 46 % on beverages) and high inland freight (≈ 11 % of shelf price) push retail prices beyond what lower-income households can bear.
    • Institutional buyers see shrinking food-service margins, forcing menu simplification and lower nutritional quality.

  2. Availability & Variety of Desirable Products
    • Slow regulatory approval (up to 18 months for reformulation) and financing gaps for SMEs delay launches of healthier, plant-based and sustainable products.
    • Regional logistics deficits limit assortment depth outside the South-East axis.

  3. Convenience & Supply Reliability
    • Road-centric logistics, under-dimensioned cold-chain capacity and traffic congestion jeopardise on-time e-commerce deliveries and institutional drop-offs.
    • Consumers in smaller cities experience narrow delivery windows or no quick-commerce coverage at all.

  4. Product Quality, Safety & Traceability
    • Temperature excursions in transit (3-4 % produce loss) and a shortage of food-technologists threaten safety, especially for chilled goods.
    • Hospitals and schools lack real-time traceability data to prove compliance with nutritional or allergen standards.

  5. Sustainability Gaps
    • Consumers voice frustration with excessive single-use plastic and unclear recycling guidance.
    • Processors struggle to fund low-carbon packaging conversion, delaying market availability of “truly green” alternatives.

  6. Fit-for-Purpose B2B Solutions
    • Institutional kitchens require bulk formats, precise nutritional profiles and punctual, high-frequency deliveries—needs that many mid-tier suppliers cannot yet fulfil consistently.

Unmet Needs and Pains

Below we map each pain to the concrete, still-unmet customer need, describe the current gap, and outline the impact on the two customer segments.

# Unmet Need Gap Description (why unmet?) Impact on B2C Households & On-Premise Diners Impact on B2B Institutional Consumers
1 Affordable nutritious packaged foods Up-stream cost pressures outpace wage growth; limited availability of value packs with balanced nutrition Lower-income families trade down, reduce protein intake; loyalty shifts to hard-discount & atacarejo Budget overruns force menu downgrades; public schools restrict fruit/veg servings
2 Rapid access to healthier, clean-label & plant-based SKUs Lengthy ANVISA reformulation approvals; SME financing hurdles; limited R&D capabilities Consumers wait 12-18 months for trends common in U.S./EU; perception that “healthy = expensive” Hospitals & corporate cafeterias struggle to meet wellness policies; need custom formulations
3 Reliable, same-day or next-day delivery nationwide 60 % of municipalities lack cold-chain hubs; road dependence raises transit times; quick-commerce only covers Tier-1 cities Rural & mid-tier-city households endure stock-outs or pay high delivery fees; e-grocery adoption stagnates Late or partial deliveries disrupt meal planning and inventory control
4 Assurance of food safety & transparent provenance Fragmented data capture across farms, processors and distributors; lack of interoperable traceability systems Fear of recalls reduces trust in certain categories (e.g., ready-meals, deli meats) Hospitals need audit-ready traceability but rely on paper CoAs; compliance risk
5 Eco-friendly packaging & credible carbon-footprint labels CapEx-intensive packaging conversion; absence of nationwide recycling streams; inconsistent labelling standards “Green-motivated” shoppers abandon category or import niche brands Institutions face CSR pressure yet cannot procure bulk products with low-impact packaging
6 Menu-ready bulk formats matching strict nutrition specs Mid-sized processors focus on retail pack sizes; limited co-manufacturing options; lack of dietitian collaboration N/A Schools need low-sodium, fortified options; hospitals need texture-modified foods; unmet demand persists

Key Findings

Key Finding Evidence Base Strategic Implication
Price sensitivity remains the single most acute pain—driving growth of atacarejo formats. Industry tax structure & logistics cost data; 8.8 % nominal retail growth concentrated in discount channels. Cost-out innovation (smaller grammages, simplified recipes) and advocacy for tax reform are critical.
Desire for healthier, convenient and sustainable products is outpacing industry’s speed to launch. Social-listening signals on clean-label and plant-based; ANVISA time-to-market lag. Fast-track reformulation playbooks and regulatory sandboxes could unlock market share.
Logistics bottlenecks translate directly into unmet needs for convenience and reliability. 60 % municipalities lacking cold hubs; 11 % freight cost share; 10.4 % food-service growth hindered by delays. Investment in multi-temperature cross-docking and rail corridors is a competitive differentiator.
Safety & traceability gaps are increasingly visible to end-users, especially in institutional settings. Produce loss (3–4 %); audit failures in hospitals; social-listening mentions of recalls. Blockchain-enabled traceability and IoT temperature logging can become table-stakes for B2B contracts.
Sustainability pains are dual: lack of eco options and consumer confusion on labels. Packaging market reports; social chatter on plastic waste. Joint industry-retailer recycling schemes and harmonised eco-labelling will capture the “green premium.”
Institutional buyers remain underserved on specialised nutritional formats. Interviews & sector studies (Sebrae) highlighting shortage of texture-modified, low-sodium bulk SKUs. Co-manufacturing and dietitian-led product design open high-volume, defensible niches.

References

  1. Agência Brasil – “Faturamento da indústria de alimentos cresce 10 % em 2024.” 2025. https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/economia/noticia/2025-02/faturamento-industria-alimentos-2024
  2. ABIA – “Números do Setor 2024.” https://abia.org.br/numeros-do-setor
  3. Exame – “Indústria de alimentos movimentou quase R$ 1,3 trilhão em 2024.” https://exame.com/economia/industria-alimentos-13-trilhao-2024
  4. Band UOL – “Brasil terá safra recorde e não tem como armazenar; entenda.” 2024. https://www.band.uol.com.br/agronegocio/noticias/brasil-tem-safra-recorde-e-nao-tem-como-armazenar-entenda-16543253
  5. Mordor Intelligence – “Brazil Packaging Market – Growth, Trends, Forecasts (2024-2029).” https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/brazil-packaging-market
  6. Sebrae – “Pesquisa Setorial – Alimentação Fora do Lar 2024.” https://www.sebrae.com.br/sites/PortalSebrae/estudos-pesquisas
  7. PwC – “Ecossistemas de Cadeias de Suprimentos Conectadas e Autônomas 2025.” https://www.pwc.com.br/pt/publicacoes/2025/ecossistemas-supply-chain-autonomas.pdf
  8. Ball Corporation – “Sustainability Report 2024 – South America Operations.” https://www.ball.com/sustainability