Yeo Valley, the UK’s largest organic brand, is launching a range of kefir based products.
The west of England based organic dairy business, which reported a turnover of £285 million in 2018, announced the range on social media last week.
The Yeo Valley kefir range comes in three variants – Natural Organic, Strawberry Organic and Mango & Passion Fruit Organic – in 350g pots, and contains 14 strains of probiotic bacteria.
Announcing the launch, the company said: “This ancient way of fermenting yogurt has been around for ages so we thought it was high time we brought you one, made here in the valley.”
While Kefir – made by adding to kefir grains to milk to create a fermentation starter – is a centuries old food tradition, originating in Russia and other Eastern European countries, it is still relatively new to mainstream UK consumers.
However, smaller specialist brands, such as Bio-tiful, Nourish and Rhythm have steadily been building a UK audience for kefir based products, which will have given Yeo Valley the confidence to launch into what has been regarded until recently as a distinctly niche category.
The global market for kefir based products stood at $2.1 billion in 2016, according to Transparency Research, who forecast annual category growth of 5.9% over the period 2017 to 2025 .