The article below was published in Fruit Processing in January, 1997 in Germany and was then published in The Japan Fruit foundation Proceedings in March, 1997, translated into Japanese.

The American Fruit Juice Market: a growth model

Tufts University

Today, North Americans represent the world's largest market for fruit juices and fruit drinks. Americans now drink one of every three servings of all globally-processed juice beverages; in a world market projected by the year 2000 to increase in volume by 25 percent, these juice-thirsty consumers are expected to continue to drink one third of the world's juice beverages well into the twenty-first century!

By 1994, worldwide juice beverage sales had grown to $35.4 billion annually; in the United States market alone, aided by twelve straight years of record retail sales, purchases were $12.2 billion, 34 percent of global sales for the year.

Americans have developed a never-ending thirst for both large gallonage as well as great variety in their fruit juices and drinks. By the mid-1990s, these consumers were drinking over 3.3 billion gallons of fruit beverages annually. (See chart 1 below)

The market trends of both volume growth and a widening array of juice beverages consumed are projected to continue to grow steadily stronger in the American marketplace.

Today, juice beverages are American's second most popular non-alcoholic, packaged beverage, with over 13 gallons per-capita consumption, surpassed only by carbonated soft drinks. Carbonated soft drinks now have the largest consumption share, 50 gallons per capita; however in the recent decade, juice beverage consumption has grown at a faster rate - 33 percent versus 26 percent for carbonated drinks.

"What drives this American market?"