Consumer Packaged Goods: Key Developments and Predictions for 2023

Wide-scale disruption didn’t slow in 2022. The leading driver was the war in Ukraine, which disrupted commodity supply chains, cascading impacts broadly to the value chain and consumers. Oil and key crop availability decreased, adding urgency to innovations that support robust supply chains and minimize social and environmental impact. From novel ingredient and food sources or production processes to fertilizer and energy alternatives, innovation in many sectors didn’t slow as would be expected from rising interest rates. Why? As we predicted in our 2022 report, adjacent industries interacted in response to the breadth and depth of global change, while consumers recognized new norms the change produced. But this doesn’t mean adoption of novel options will continue on an exponential trajectory. Even innovations that dramatically increased their market presence, like plant-based proteins, find their level and begin to stabilize, as observed in 2022. The task for clients is to identify those new stable states for business decisions in 2023 and beyond.