Starter Culture Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application, Regional Outlook, Competitive Strategies, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 To 2025

The global starter culture market is expected to show appreciable growth over the forecast period on account of the growing demand for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Increasing health awareness regarding starter culture benefits is touted to further aid in rapid market growth. Starter cultures are used to initiate the fermentation process and are also used as flavor, texture, and color enhancers in the production of various alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Yeast, mold, and bacteria are the major starter culture product segments, whereas alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage uses are the major end-user applications. Alcoholic beverages dominated the starter culture market over the past few years.

Non-alcoholic beverages are expected to offer the highest growth rate over the forecast period. Yeast starter culture dominates the alcoholic beverages segment whereas bacteria are widely used for non-alcoholic beverages such as dairy products. Moreover, technological advancements in the starter culture industry such as genetically modified starter cultures are expected to complement the market growth. Stringent regulations on micro-organisms and their growth conditions are expected to challenge the global market over the forecast period. Volatile raw material prices are also anticipated to further restrain market growth. Increasing functional drinks demand coupled with superior nutritive and ready-to-drink beverages offer the requisite opportunities for the market. Improvement in production processes along with technological advancements is slated to provide opportunities to the market participants. 

Europe dominated the regional starter culture market owing to its high alcoholic beverage demand. The Asia Pacific and Latin America are anticipated to witness the highest market growth over the forecast period owing to high alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage demand in emerging economies such as India, China, and Brazil. In North America, high nutritional beverages demand is expected to fuel regional market growth. The industry landscape is very competitive in nature, with leading participants constantly investing in R&D to strengthen their product portfolios. Major industry participants are actively involved in M&A with smaller companies to increase their market share. Key starter culture industry participants include Angel Yeast CO. Limited, Lesaffre Group, Lallemand Inc, CSK Food Enrichment B.V, Wyeast laboratories Inc., Dohler Group, Lactina Limited and Danisco A/S among others.