Gummies have completely overtaken chewing gum in the 100 billion yen market!　A battle of new products that are chewy and satisfying!

Gummies” have changed the history of the confectionery industry.

The gummy industry is finally about to become a huge market with a scale of 100 billion yen per year.

A shocking event that changed the history of the confectionery industry occurred about four years ago in 2009. For the first time in history, the market size of gummies, which had long lagged behind that of chewing gum, was reversed. At that time, gummy bears recorded annual sales of 63.5 billion yen, which grew to 78.1 billion yen in 2010 and 97.2 billion yen in 2011. Although the exact figures for 2012 are not yet available, given the recent growth, the gummi market would have easily exceeded 100 billion yen in sales.

How did the Japanese people stop eating gum and come to love gummy bears? Economic journalist Takai Naoyuki analyzes the situation as follows.

The year ’21 was the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. Gum was severely damaged by the decline in face-to-face communication and the loss of etiquette demand. Gummies, on the other hand, made great strides as a way to refresh oneself while working from home. While gum was, to a certain extent, fixed in terms of hardness and shape, gummy bears offered a variety of colors, shapes, tastes, and textures, and gained support as a familiar pleasure. They were also compatible with social networking sites because of their photogenic qualities. All in all, gummy bears are a confectionery that is in tune with the times.

The gummy market is booming, but its history in Japan is surprisingly short. Professor Kazuo Shiratori of Ryutsu Kagaku University explains.

In 1920, Hans Riegel, a confectioner in Bonn, Germany, started a small company called Haribo, and two years later developed the world’s first gummi called Dancing Bears. Later, it was renamed “Gold Bear” and is still loved around the world today. However, it was in 1980, about 60 years after Haribo, that the first gummy was launched in Japan. It was in 1980, about 60 years after Haribo, that Meiji developed “Cola-up. At the time, however, “Cola-Up” was a candy wrapped in a plastic wrap, similar to “Bon Temps candy. In 1985, “Gold Bear,” which had been available as a parallel import, officially arrived in Japan. In response, UHA Ajijikkogaku also launched “Cosmic 21,” and the number of players increased. At this point, however, the market was not very active and was limited to a few billion yen at best.

The situation changed drastically in 1988. It was in 1988 that the situation changed drastically when Meiji released “Fruit Juice Gummi,” which became an extraordinarily successful product.

At the time, hard gummies like Gold Bear were not to the liking of the Japanese. Therefore, Meiji sought to create a soft yet elastic chewing experience. The most popular flavor was grape. The person in charge at Meiji said, ‘Gelatin, the raw material of gummi, and grape-flavored ingredients are compatible with each other, and it is easy to feel the juiciness.

With the introduction of “Fruit Juice Gummies,” the gummy market grew to about 25 billion yen in 1990. Meiji continued to develop popular gummy products such as “Poifl” and “Xirish Gummi,” and continues to reign as the number one company in the gummy market to this day.