Nestle adapts as hoarding picks up in Asia, North Africa
Seyda Bal, who works at a bank in Istanbul, is so anxious about the rising price of groceries that she's lapsed into a pandemic-era habit: hoarding packaged goods like coffee and toilet paper, Qazet.az reports.
"I buy a lot of basic foods such as oil, pasta, rice, tahini, molasses ... thinking that next month they will cost twice as much," Bal, 27, said.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has propelled energy and grain prices to all-time highs, driving up the cost of packaged goods. That has been felt particularly acutely in parts of Asia and North Africa, where people spend a higher proportion of income on food and fuel than in the United States and Europe, prompting some shoppers to stockpile non-perishable items.
The trend hasn't gone unnoticed by Nestle (NESN.S), the world's biggest packaged food company and home to more than 2,000 brands including Cheerios, Nescafe and Maggi.
The Swiss group is adapting its product ranges in the region to "make them more meaningful to the consumer", and considering whether to make some products "more affordable", according to Karim Al Bitar, head of consumer research and market intelligence at Nestle's Middle East and North Africa (MENA) unit.