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Sales and Trends
Sales Data
- From 1992 to 2008, soyfoods sales have increased from $300 million to $4 billion over 16 years. This increase can be attributed to new soyfood categories being introduced, soyfoods being repositioned in the market place, and new customers selecting soy for health and philosophical reasons.
- Dramatic growth followed the FDA approval of a health claim linking soy with heart disease reduction. Click here for a Soyfoods Sales from 1992 – 2008 (pdf).
- Sales of some categories of soyfoods have slowed down in growth in the retail market, but other categories have experienced more significant growth. The growing opportunities in food service should also boost sales of meat alternatives, soymilk, tofu, and other soyfoods. New soyfood categories (i.e. soy-based drinks, drinkable cultured soy, soy dairy free frozen desserts, and energy bars) are emerging with strong and steady growth. The wide variety of soyfoods will help consumers meet the 2005 federal Dietary Guidelines that call for eating foods like soy that are high in fiber, omega 3 fatty acids, key vitamins and minerals and lower in saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories.
- Source: Soyfoods: The U.S. Market 2009, published by Soyatech, Inc. and SPINS. For more information, contact Soyatech at 800.424.SOYA, or by email at customerservice@soyatech.com. The below chart represents our most recent sales figures.
| Product |
2006 Sales |
2007 Sales |
2008 Sales |
Difference Between 2007 to 2008 |
| * baked goods, entrees, cereal, pasta, meal replacement, powdered soy beverages, chips, snack foods, low-carb food, pet food |
| Tofu |
$250 |
$244 |
$257 |
4.9% |
| Soymilk |
$892 |
$1058 |
$1094 |
3.3% |
| Meat Alternatives |
$568 |
$572 |
$620 |
8.3% |
| Energy Bars |
$692 |
$701 |
$767 |
3.1% |
| Soy Cheese, Yogurt & Ice Cream |
$214 |
$218 |
$223 |
2.3% |
| Other* |
$1,356 |
$1,192 |
$1,210 |
1.5% |
| Total |
$3,972 |
$3,985 |
$4,171 |
1.8% |
New Soy Products
- From 2000 to 2007, food manufacturers in the U.S. introduced over 2,700 new foods with soy as an ingredient, including 161 new products introduced in 2007 alone. The 1999 FDA approved health claim for soy and heart health brought many new introductions, leading to 406 new products in 2001, 278 in 2002, 336 in 2003, 448 in 2004, 291 in 2005, and 471 in 2006 according to the Mintel Global New Products Database.
- Soy products have historically been associated almost exclusively with natural foods stores. However, supermarkets have recently begun carrying both national soyfood brands and their own store brands of soy products.
- Three quarters of the sales of soyfoods and drinks now come from supermarkets, according to the Mintel, June 2006 Soy-based Food and Drink Report.
Consumer Attitudes
- Thirty-two percent of Americans consume soyfoods or soy beverages once a month or more, on par with 2006 through 2008.
- Approximately one-third of U.S. consumers seek out products containing soy and approximately 31 percent of consumers are aware of specific health benefits of soy in their diet.
- In 2009, 84 percent of consumers perceive soy products as healthy.
- On an aided basis, consumers are most aware of the health benefits of soy in relation to weight management (31 percent), reduced risk of heart disease (27 percent) and reducing the risk of some cancers (20 percent).
- The most popular meal time for consuming soy products is dinner time (38 percent), followed by eating soy as breakfast (32 percent), lunch (20 percent), mid-afternoon snacking (16 percent), late evening snacking (10 percent), mid-morning snacking (9 percent) and desserts (6 percent).
- Consumers ranked soybean oil among the top three healthy oils, with 69 percent recognizing soy oil as a healthy oil. Consumers depend on soybean oil, commonly sold as vegetable oil, as one of their two most frequent cooking oils.
- Over one-third of consumers (33 percent) said they are aware of the FDA claim that consuming 25 grams of soy protein per day reduces the risk of coronary heart disease. Ninety-four percent either agree with the health claim or would like more information.
- For more information: United Soybean Board 2009 Consumer Attitudes Report (pdf)
