Looking back at the performance of this year’s features and comment coverage on Just Food and perhaps it’s no surprise to pick out the topics that particularly grabbed your attention this year.
Our analysis of the volatility in commodity prices, upheaval in the supply chain, the rise of GLP-1 drugs, corporate moves at the food industry’s major players and the return of Donald Trump to the White House all proved particularly popular.
Cocoa prices reached record highs this year as a drop in the global supply left chocolatiers scrambling to secure the essential raw ingredient. We dug into the topic in March and, judging by the news in recent weeks, we may do so again next year.
In January, the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea upended supplies through one of the world’s most important trade routes and caused companies across industries to reassess their logistics.
Volatility in commodity prices looks set to be a challenge food companies will increasingly have to think about and, in May, the price of olive oil came to the fore.
In March, Unilever announced plans to separate its ice cream business from the rest of the company. The exact way that’s going to happen still hasn’t emerged but the decision led to speculation over the fate of the rest of Unilever’s food portfolio. Some brands have since been sold.
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By GlobalData
Glucagon-like-peptide 1s (GLP-1s) are a group of drugs that suppress appetite. Their use in the US and western Europe is on the rise, prompting concerns about the impact on demand for packaged food. It’s a topic likely featuring on boardroom agendas throughout the industry and some companies have gone public with how they plan to meet the challenge.
In August, Nestlé announced it would promote company veteran Laurent Freixe to chief executive, a move that surprised the market. Come November, Freixe used the Swiss giant’s capital markets day to set out his plans for the KitKat maker and we gave you the top takeaways.
The changes Unilever – long seen as a leader on ESG – made to its sustainability targets in April attracted NGO criticism but were another sign of the new era at the company under CEO Hein Schumacher.
Ultimately, Donald Trump prevailed in this year’s US presidential election and, come 20 January, will be back in the White House. Ahead of the poll, our US columnist Victor Martino set out how the prospective policies of the two candidates could have shaped the country’s food industry.
In the immediate aftermath of the election result, we explored what a second Trump term could mean for the sector overall. It will prove a hot topic for us all in 2025.
Over the past 12 months, there has been a lot of talk about the benefits food businesses could potentially derive from the use of artificial intelligence. Experts have speculated how the technology could be deployed across the supply chain and what improvements it could bring across different business processes and functions.
