CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, US — As food ingredients, sustainable grains are showing mettle as sales growth drivers despite a mixed performance as single products, according to natural products market researcher SPINS.

Stand-alone product dollar sales for seven core sustainable grains — quinoa, farro, buckwheat, millet, amaranth, teff and sorghum — fell 4% as a group in each of the past two years, said AJ Snowhite, supplier growth manager at SPINS, in a presentation titled “Exploring Sustainable Ingredients for Bakery Success” at last week’s IFT FIRST expo in Chicago. Yet consumers are turning to nutritious grains to reap health benefits as these ingredients have diversified on store shelves, he noted.

For example, in the shelf-stable rice and grain products category, dollar sales climbed 40% for items offering high protein, 16% for low sodium, 14% for low saturated fats and 11% for high fiber, based on SPINScan data for the 52 weeks ended May 19 in the Circana US natural and multi-outlet retail channels.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, ancient grains like couscous, quinoa and farro kicked off a “new wave” of consumer interest in grain options to rice and wheat products, a trend that more recently has expanded to include “disruptor” grains like teff, sorghum, amaranth and millet, Snowhite explained.

“We see couscous, quinoa and grains like this start to come to the forefront as shopper preferences shifted and continue to shift with modern grains that are high in protein, low sodium, low saturated fat and high fiber,” he said in his talk at the SPINS booth. “So we’re upping the nutrition and again, with the sustainable grains, we are upping our environmental concern.”

The seven-grain group identified by Chicago-based SPINs saw dollar sales as single products decline to $41.4 million for the 52-week period from $43.1 million last year and $44.7 million two years ago. Quinoa holds the largest market share in the group at about 73%, followed by farro (16%), buckwheat (8%) and millet (1%), with amaranth, teff and sorghum combining for approximately 1% share.

Dollar sales of stand-alone quinoa were down 7% year-over-year to $30.7 million, with SPINS also reporting decreases for millet (down 2% to $0.5 million), teff (down 5% to $0.2 million) and sorghum (down 2% to $0.1 million). Meanwhile, farro and buckwheat are generating strong growth, with respective sales up 8% to $6.7 million and 7% to $3.4 million.

“Quinoa has been the big gorilla in the room,” Snowhite said. “But we are seeing sales decline in quinoa, and farro and buckwheat are over-indexing in growth share. We can also see that the sustainable grain category is declining year-over-year as a single product, but we see all of these grains increase as an ingredient in finished products.”

SPINS has flagged quinoa as an emerging ingredient in nut and seed butters, and the grain has helped drive year-over-year sales gains as a supporting ingredient in rice cakes (up 75%) and wellness bars (up 17%). Likewise, farro has spurred sales growth as an ingredient in baking mixes (up 67%), crackers and crisp breads (up 49%) and pasta (up 11%), while buckwheat as an ingredient is helping to boost sales in granola (up 11%), buckwheat-based hot cereal (up 7%), and crackers and crisp breads (up 26%).

“We can look at where we are seeing these (sustainable grains),” Snowhite said. “With quinoa, we are seeing them in nut butter and seed butters. We are seeing them in rice cakes, and we are seeing them in wellness bars as well. With farro, we’re seeing a major increase in baking mixes, crackers and crisp breads, and pastas. With buckwheat, we are seeing granola, hot cereal, cookies, crackers and crisp breads all increasing.”

Snowhite also cited an emerging opportunity for soba tea-based kombucha beverages, a category with 3% year-over-year sales growth.

“Buckwheat is the traditional soba tea ingredient as well, so we are seeing growth in kombucha, which is pretty unique,” he said.

Sales are up 15% for millet in cold cereals, 11% for teff in snacks and 25% in shelf-stable sweeteners for sorghum as supporting ingredients in products, according to SPINS. Similarly, sales of amaranth as an ingredient are up 31% in shelf-stable cold cereals and 86% in shelf-stable vegetable and other chips.

“We see that pop up on TikTok,” Snowhite said of amaranth. “There are a million recipes pushing that ingredient right now, and we do see it in shelf-stable cold cereals and shelf-stable chips as well. And then we have this gluten-free trio of millet, teff and sorghum that we are seeing grow in cold cereals for millet, snacks for teff and shelf-stable sweeteners for sorghum. So, bottom line, brands that are addressing these consumer shifts are the ones who are succeeding.”

Besides high nutrition, these seven grains foster sustainability — a key product attribute for a growing number of consumers, Snowhite noted. That includes increased food security, water conservation, greater tolerance of extreme weather patterns, enhanced biodiversity, soil health replenishment and lower greenhouse gas emissions.