Celebrating ethnic festivals is key… Interests in other cuisines is growing… Trend towards delicacies from all over the world…

Ethnic Grocery Buyer, Asda

Big festivals such as Eid and Diwali are supported across categories with in-store events. This has expanded to include ranges of Ramadan calendars, Eid and Diwali cards and Diwali story books.

Asian ranges are the best selling as they cover the widest range of population and there is mainstream crossover, particularly as British tastes have become more exotic.

Our aim is that Asda should be the retailer for all communities. We do this by ensuring we celebrate and are a part of key festivals, for colleagues as well as customers, as well as offering key ranges at a value price.

Trading Manager, Budgens

Overall, the market is still growing. Chinese has been struggling, but it’s picked up again and is still the top performer within our company. Indian, Chinese and Mexican remain the top three, with Thai following.

Interest in other cuisines is definitely growing, for instance, Japanese. As well as ready prepared sushi in many of the multiples, we’re now seeing sushi kits and sushi rice. Apart from the introduction of more cuisines - Vietnamese, for example - the major change has been in standard products. All the manufacturers continue to improve on the quality of their products and reflect more authentic flavour.

MD, Central Distribution, Nisa-Today’s

Different international ranges have begun to appear in supermarkets and consumers expect good convenience stores to mirror these ranges. Already there is a trend towards delicacies from Greece, Turkey, South Africa, Jamaica and the Middle East, alongside the now traditional Mexican, Mediterranean and Oriental lines.

Nisa-Today’s has a strong own label presence in ethnic chilled ready meals. Its Heritage range incorporates popular Indian and Chinese tray dishes and bagged meals for two, plus new varieties - Thai Green Curry and Moussaka. Our Italian range has also been relaunched to reflect demand.
Noor Ali

Alan Clark

John Sharpe