Japan Food Sector: US soy sauce, mayo, and confectionery trends based on Nielsen data (July 2026)

Research evidence excerpt

Japan Food Sector: US soy sauce, mayo, and confectionery trends based on Nielsen data (July 2026)

Global Research

21 July 2026ab

Japan Food Sector Equities

JapanUS soy sauce, mayo, and confectionery trends

based on Nielsen data (July 2026) Food & Beverage

Rei Ihara

Analyst

rei.ihara@ubs.com

Kewpie remains solid, Morinaga rebounds to in line yoy +81-3-5208 6227

Noting significant equity market interest, we have used the latest Nielsen data to analyse Ryunosuke Watanabe

US sales of Kikkoman soy sauce, Kewpie mayonnaise, and Morinaga's Hi-Chew in July. Associate Analyst

Our conclusions are 1) Kikkoman's soy sauce sales slowed somewhat, but continued to ryunosuke.watanabe@ubs.com

grow firmly; 2) Kewpie's mayonnaise remained strong; and 3) the magnitude of declines +81-3-5208 6243

for Morinaga's Hi-Chew sales narrowed and sales rebounded to being in line with the

previous year.

Kikkoman slowed somewhat, but was firm even so

Kikkoman's soy sauce sales value rose 10% yoy in January-March 2026, and was up 7%

yoy in April-June 2026 and up 5% yoy for July alone. Although sales have slowed

somewhat versus January-March, even so growth is still firm. There may be a gap

between sell-in and sell-out in H1 FY3/27, as there appears to have been adjustments in

shipments ahead of the startup of a new factory, but underlying demand for soy sauce

for household use itself appears to be firm.

Kewpie also able to maintain strong sales growth

Kewpie's Q2 FY11/26 results showed North American mayonnaise sales up 6% yoy in

January-March 2026. Within this, sales of national brand (NB) products rose 30% and

OEM products declined 20%. The company continued to lose OEM orders, but NB

product sales were quite firm. Similarly, Nielsen data showed that sales grew 30% yoy in