The World's Billion-Dollar Food Brands

Lay's is rising but Kellogg's and Kraft are declining, and Asian food brands in general are posting the most gains in Euromonitor's list of the world's most valuable packaged food brands.

The list compares these brands' 2014 sales with what they sold in 2004. Lay's is No. 1, moving up three spots from a decade ago. Kellogg's is No. 2; it was first in 2004. Kraft, the former No. 2, is now sixth, having been passed up by Chinese dairies Yili and Mengniu, as well as Wrigley (which dropped from fourth to fifth).

The list appears concerned with packaged foods only, not soft drinks. All the brands on the list apparently have sales of at least a billion dollars worldwide.

With the exception of Lay's, the Western brands are stagnant or in slight decline, at least in terms of the ranking. The list includes iconic brands familiar in the West – Cadbury, Knorr, Activia, Heinz and Oscar Mayer also are among the top 15 – as well as meteoric Asian-only brands, such as Chinese names Yili, Mengniu, Master Kong and Arawana.

"Asia Pacific has been the major growth engine of the packaged food industry over the past decade, adding $180 billion to the global market," according to Euromonitor. "To put this in context, that's 48 percent of the growth generated by the entire industry. China has been the primary source of this."

Despite the impressive growth of China's brands, Euromonitor notes most are entirely dependent upon a single market.

See the full report at http://blog.euromonitor.com/2014/12/the-biggest-billionaire-brands-in-the-food-world.html. Following is the top 10 only; the full report has 50 brands.