Chocolate and Confectionery Processing Equipment Market (2018-2024)

Chocolate and confectionery processing equipment provide a solution to meet the increasing demand for chocolate and confectionery products along with functional and innovative products. Increased demand for chocolate and confectionery production implies significant demand to adopt new methods, technology, and machinery in the chocolate and confectionery manufacturing industry. Chocolate and confectionery processing equipment are put in place to solve the challenges faced by their manufacturers such as fat migration, incorrect heating, interfering aromas in cocoa, and rancidity in formulation ingredients, among others. These challenges offer chocolate and confectionery equipment manufacturers the chance to prove their capabilities and innovative power in order to support confectionery producers by maximizing energy efficiency which is aimed at more sustainable production.

The global chocolate and confectionery market has witnessed a steady growth in the last two decades. This demand is associated with increasing urbanization, new product launches, new marketing strategies, changing dietary habits, and the emerging trend of gifting confectionery products. In addition, growing brand consciousness, exposure to western products in developing countries, the introduction of new product categories, and new product variants catering to diversified tastes are ensuring higher acceptability of confectionery products. All these factors create a strong case for the accelerated growth of the chocolate and confectionery industry. Also, there is a growing demand for functional and healthy confectionery items such as products that are free of trans fats, saturated fat, and artificial flavors and sweeteners which require technologically advanced equipment. Therefore, with the increased demand of confectionery items, there is growing adoption of new methods, technologies, and machinery in the chocolate and confectionery industry, thereby fueling the growth of chocolate and confectionery processing equipment market.

Global retail industry is primarily driven by rising GDP growth, burgeoning population, greater disposable income, and increasing consumer spending. Confectionery is an impulse category in the grocery sector of retailers across the globe. According to the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), the global chocolate and confectionery retail volume increased from 1,344 thousand tones in 2010 to 1,383 thousand tones in 2016. Further, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, retail sales of chocolate increased from $93.69 billion in 2015 to $98.2 billion in 2016 worldwide. Hence, boom in retail industry increases the consumption of chocolate and confectionery items, which ultimately influence the growth of chocolate and confectionery processing equipment market.

The activities covered in chocolate and confectionery equipment production are manufacturing, processing, generation, assembling, and mining. This has always been closely linked to developing the technology. The new chocolate and confectionery processing equipment have complex & sensitive electrical system, controls, and rapid automation. This has resulted into replacing old generation equipment with modern machines which has led to increasing maintenance, technical support, and power costs. Industrial chocolate and confectionery processing equipment manufacturers face many challenges during the supply of high-quality machinery, and they require high cost throughout the manufacturing process. The increase in production cost leads to the rise in the final price of equipment which makes it difficult for chocolate and confectionery processors, especially small and medium scale manufacturers, to afford the equipment, thereby limiting the demand of chocolate and confectionery processing equipment.

The key players operating in the global chocolate and confectionery processing equipment market are Buhler AG (Switzerland), GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft (Germany), John Bean Technologies Corporation (U.S.), Heat and Control Inc. (U.S.), Alfa Laval AB (Sweden), Robert Bosch Packaging Technology GmbH (Germany), Aasted APS (Denmark), Baker Perkins Limited (U.K.), Tomric Systems, Inc (U.S.), Caotech B.V. (The Netherlands), Sollich KG (Germany), Apex Machinery & Equipment Co., Ltd. (China), Royal Duyvis Wiener B.V. (The Netherlands), Tecno 3 S.R.L. (Italy), and BCH Limited (U.K.), among others.