During a recession, the yogurt category must adapt to offer consumers more affordable options. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, yogurts containing ingredients that boost immunity have a good opportunity to attract new consumers. Products with indulgent flavors can grow their consumer base as well, as Brazilians are seeking food that brings them comfort and moments of pleasure to help them cope with anxiety. Since the relaxing of social distancing rules, demand for products with health and fitness claims, such as “helps improve performance in physical activities,” should start increasing again because many Brazilians will try to get back to the physical shape they were in before the outbreak.

• How the COVID-19 outbreak affects consumer behavior and the yogurt market

• How the market will perform in the post-COVID-19 period

• Consumer behaviors, attitudes and perceptions

• Consumption of products in the yogurt category

• Launches and consumer interest in innovations

The yogurt market includes yogurt drinks (bottled) and spoonable yogurts (in pots) and natural and flavored, but it excludes frozen yogurt, kefir, quark, fromage frais and yogurts with a complex microbial composition. The market value and volume are based on retail sales, including sales directly to the consumer.

The consumer survey also includes plant milk yogurts and yogurt-based desserts.

This Report was concluded on October 7, 2020.

On February 4, 2020, President Jair Bolsonaro declared national emergency in Brazil. The first registered case of COVID-19 in Brazil was confirmed on February 26, 2020. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global outbreak, and on March 21, São Paulo, the city with the most registered cases of COVID-19, imposed a lockdown.

Throughout Brazil, social distancing rules are being relaxed, to different degrees. Restaurants and bars are already open for business as well as retail outlets in general in most of the country, even though some companies continue to follow the home office and remote work model, partially or fully. As for educational institutions (from kindergartens to universities), town halls have the autonomy to decide on their own protocols for the return to school. In São Paulo, for example, schools should start reopening gradually from the October 7, following strict guidelines to ensure the safety of students and staff. The threshold for students’ attendance at any time is 20% of the total number of students enrolled in the academic year of 2020. While this Report is being written, these guidelines remain extremely varied across Brazil, depending on each state government’s evaluation of the outbreak situation and health indicators.