Food manufacturers are beginning to wake up to a nationwide rise in the popularity of granola, and are stepping up production of the oat-based snack in an attempt to create a new staple for Japanese breakfast tables.
“We want to entrench the popularity of granola to make it a new major revenue source,” said Akira Matsumoto, chairman and chief executive officer of major Japanese snack maker Calbee Inc.
Behind the popularity of nutritious granola — which is typically made by baking a mixture of oats, brown rice, nuts and honey, as well as brown sugar — are its crunchy texture and convenience.
Granola is served with milk or yogurt and often contains dried fruit such as raisins and papaya.
Among Calbee’s Furugura fruit granola lineup, 800-gram packs priced at around ¥1,000 are selling particularly well.
Although many granola buyers are women in their 20s to 40s, the products are also popular among single men and the elderly because they are a convenient source of nutrition, an official at a major maker says.
Calbee expects Furugura sales to increase by 50 percent from the previous year to between ¥13 billion and ¥14 billion in the current fiscal year ending next March.
To meet surging demand, the company raised production capacity in February and plans to increase it further in the future.
Nissin Cisco Co., a unit of Nissin Foods Holdings Co., had to suspend sales of one of its granola products due to difficulties keeping up with demand.
The Japanese unit of U.S. maker Kellogg Co. has launched a new granola product with half the fat of conventional products and another with more fiber.
Granola confectioneries, including Tohato Inc.’s Puchigura cream-filled granola, are also popular.
Retail outlets serving only granola have also sprung up in Tokyo, allowing customers to choose exactly which ingredients they want in their bowls.
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