While cost still dominates many people’s food choices, factors such as health positioning, convenience demand and sustainability are all playing a key role in decisions. This trend-led briefing identifies the key drivers for positive sales of fresh food. and works alongside the World Market for Fresh Food briefing to provide a full picture of the most important data updates and consumer trends. Together, they provide a holistic view of where the industry is headed.
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This report comes in PPT.
The ongoing tough economic and consumer spending environment sees food shoppers continue to prioritise low-cost food options. The uncertainty over tariffs is adding another macroeconomic obstacle for producers to navigate, making conditions unlikely to improve in the short term.
Once mostly about appealing to a select group of shoppers, the ongoing impact of climate change on key regions and key crops means enacting sustainability efforts has become increasingly essential for fresh food companies to survive.
Fresh food escapes much of the increased consumer concern over processed food; it is seen as natural and healthy and avoids negative perception from ingredients such as preservatives, added sugar/salt and constituents that shoppers do not understand or recognise.
More people are reporting they do not have time to cook, do not like it or would simply rather do something else; while this is a challenge for a food industry with many categories that rely upon cooking, there are opportunities around snacking (especially as products like fruit compare favourably to processed snacks among health-conscious consumers).
Branding is on the increase in an attempt by producers to avoid the commoditisation of most fresh foods; while ultra-premium is present, most such fresh foods remain at lower prices than processed counterparts, attempting to increase margins without losing affordability in the current economic climate.
Fresh Food refers only to fresh uncooked and unprocessed foods (packaged and unpackaged). Packaged sugar products and natural sweeteners (e.g. brown sugar, table sugar, molasses) are also included. For Fresh Food, we research total sales across distribution channels including retail, foodservice and institutions. For a selected 18 markets, we have a breakdown of total fresh food sales according to the following formats: • Retail • Foodservice sales • Institutional sales Retail Retail sales is defined as sales through all legal establishments primarily engaged in the sale of fresh, packaged and prepared foods for home preparation and consumption. Retail sales excludes sales to hotels, restaurants, cafés, duty free sales and institutional sales (canteens, prisons/jails, hospitals, army, etc). Our retail definition excludes the purchase of food products from foodservice outlets for consumption off-premises, eg grilled chicken/meat/fish bought from counters of cafés/bars. This falls under foodservice sales. For foodservice, we capture all sales to foodservice outlets, regardless of whether the products are eventually consumed on-premise or off-premise. We estimate sales through the following channels: Modern Grocery Retailers • Supermarkets • Hypermarkets • Discounters • Convenience stores • Forecourt retailers Traditional Grocery Retailers • Independent small grocers • Food/Drink/Tobacco Specialists • Other grocery retailers (morning/speciality/open/wet/farmers’ markets, stalls and kiosks, etc) Non-grocery retailers • Health and beauty specialist retailers • Other non-grocery retailers Non-store retailers • Homeshopping • Internet retailing • Vending • Direct selling Foodservice Foodservice sales are defined as sales TO consumer foodservice outlets that serve the general public in a non-captive environment. In other words, this means that the foodservice volumes track sales of all fresh food going into restaurant kitchens, regardless of what the restaurant actually does with that food. Foodservice outlets include cafés/bars, FSR (full-service restaurants), fast food, 100% home delivery/takeaway, self-service cafeterias and street stalls/kiosks. Sales to semi-captive foodservice outlets are also included. This describes outlets located in leisure, travel and retail environments. • Retail refers to foodservice units located in retail outlets such as department stores, shopping malls, shopping centres, super/hypermarkets etc. • Leisure refers to foodservice units located in leisure establishments such as museums, health clubs, cinemas, theatres, theme parks and sports stadiums. • Travel refers to foodservice units based in airports, rail stations, coach stations, motorway service stations offering gas facilities etc. Institutional sales Institutional sales is defined as sales to captive foodservice units that serve captive populations such as in hospitals, schools, prisons, military camps, hotels, hostels, nursing homes, homes for elderly people, religious houses, etc.
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