The Canadian Gluten Free Market Grew 103% in 2009, This is Important to America Due to Its Proximity

Previous original analysis by GFP showed thatgf foods, the major searches were for Gluten
Canada had one of the highest online 'searchesfree bread (29,600) then flour (13,500). In 2009
per celiac per month' of any country at 3.3. Thethe secondary terms of interest were: cakes
following analysis uses Google data sets. The(5,400), diary free (8,300), cookies (6,600) and
Canadian value was only slightly behind Australia atchocolate (4,400).
4.2 and ahead of the USA at 2.7 for 2008. ThisJust as important to the level of maturity in the
update report looks at how Canada's online glutenmarket, is the change in proportion of the seven
free market has performed exceptionally wellgroups. Previous GFP research showed that the
over the last year and how the type of glutenhighest 'celiac search' developed countries showed
free search terms have changed.a distinct pattern in the proportion of these
Google values for Nov 2009 showed the followinggroups. That is that the generic gluten free group
changes in the seven main gluten free searchedwas always around 60% of the top 50 searches
groups:followed by the celiac group at around 20%.
GF Term................ VOL Nov08....... VOL Nov 09..........%Along with the large jump in total searches for
incthe year, the proportion of these groups shares
GF generic......... 291,760.............534,000.........83%have changed significantly. For instance, in America
Gluten diet...........12,100...............34,800..........188%while its generic group stayed at 64%, its celiac
GF Recipe............42,340................96,800.........129%group decreased from 20% to 8%, with a slight
Celiac...................97,300................154,700........59%increase in the 'gluten free recipe' search volume
Wheat free...........19,780.............. 39,400..........99%proportion. As can be seen above, for Canada,
Locations.......... 3,780..................7,300.......... 93%the generic 'gluten free' group decreased from
Specific foods....36,280..............84,000..........132%58% to 56%, and the celiac group dropped from
Gluten Free Canada Demand CATEGORIES19% to 16%.
It can be seen that of the top 50 gluten freeA previous article comparing various leading gluten
associated terms on Google in Canada, thatfree search countries showed that the last five
Canadian (English searches) have increasedyear trend for celiac related searches has been
between Nov 08 (467,060) to Nov 09 (951,000) -relatively flat compared to a strong rise in gluten
an astounding 103 percent!free associated searches. This is in line with the
When the top 50 monthly searches arechanges to the top 50 group proportions.
segmented into seven subcategories, it can beLONG TERM GF Canada TREND
seen that each of the categories received aThe trend for 'gluten free' (single term) searches
similar increase (their proportions remain similar foris shown above. It shows steady seasonal growth
2008 and 2009). The main category (genericand very similar patterns for 2005 to 2008,
gluten free terms), changed from 10 termshowever 2009 shows a stand out increase. Over
(291,760 searches) accounting for 58% of top 50the years the Jan to Dec increases have been yr
searches to 8 terms (534,000 searches)2005 (33%), 2006 (42%), 2007 (60%), 2008
accounting for 56% of the top 50. This is an(55%) AND in 2009 an outstanding 98!
increase in volume of 83% for this categoryCONCLUSION
alone, yet the group proportion decreased by 2%.Each of the last five years Canada has
The second highest category (celiac searches)experienced a notable increase in December GF
increased from six terms (97,300) to sevenonline demand and a particularly a very strong
terms (154,700 - a 59% increase) but the groupincrease in search volumes in 2009 (34%
proportion fell 3%. The two largest group volumebetween November and December). It would
increases were from gluten diet (12,100 to 34,800appear that 'Christmas shopping' for Canadians
- up 188%) and GF specific foods (36,280 tobuying GF products for friends and family really
84,000 - up 132%).took off in 2009.
Similar to the UK search term trends for specific