vendredi 26 avril 2013

Belgians eating more fruit and vegetables

The eating pattern of the Belgian consumer has changed over the last decade, partially due to health trends and other nutritional needs.

Vegetables seem to profit even more from the changing diet than fruit does. The standard for both fruit and vegetables remains home consumption. 70% of vegetables and 62% of fruit is consumed at home.

Over three quarters of the fruit and vegetable purchased for use at home is fresh. Carrots have gained a huge amount of popularity in the last decade, and have knocked tomatoes off top spot as most popular vegetable. Apples remain number one in the fruit top ten with a home consumption of around 10 kg a head. They couldn't keep up the the market average, and saw their market share decrease from 22% to less than 20% over the last ten years. 

Fruit and vegetable sales are dominated by the supermarkets. Dis 1 is the most important distribution channel for fresh fruits and vegetables by far. Almost half of all fresh fruit and vegetables are sold through this channel. The hard discount is the big winner in the long term, and saw its market share rise strongly from 16% in 2005 to almost 22% last year. This was shown from research by GfK PanelServices Benelux and InSites Consulting as commissioned by VLAM.


Fruit and vegetable consumption rising in the long term

In the last decade more fruit and vegetables ended up on the plate of the Belgian consumer. Fruit and vegetable is increasingly becoming part of a balanced diet. They profited from the health trends and the changing eating habits. Belgians now burn a lot less calories than they did 50 years ago. This means that the need for protein and energy rich food has decreased strongly. Vegetables appear to profit from this changing diet and health trend even more than fruit. There are a number of notable evolutions and differences to be noted within the use and purchasing behaviour of the Belgians.



Home consumption is standard
VLAM uses the consumption panel of InSites Consulting to track not just what, but where Belgians consumer food. This shows that 70% of vegetables are consumed at home, and this percentage is on the increase. In other words, the number of vegetables consumed outside of the house decreased from 32% in 2007 to 30% in 2011. Out of the places of consumption outside the home, 'at work/school' was the most important, at 10%. Especially 'catering' is suffering a decline in importance as a place of consumption. In the period 2007 to 2011 the share for catering decreased from 8.4% to 6.5%
62% of fruit is consumed at home and 38% out of the house. Unlike vegetables, the share of fruit being eaten outside the house is increasing.

Fresh dominates the fruit and vegetable category
Over three quarter of fruit and vegetable purchases made by Belgian families are fresh fruits and vegetables. The share of processed fruit and vegetables is increasing slightly. Especially smoothies and fresh 'natural' juices have gained popularity. Their market share increased in the last ten years from 14 to 15%. Frozen vegetables and preserved vegetables are stable segments. Preserved vegetables on the other hand are losing importance. Last year the average Belgian bought over 90 kg of fresh fruit and vegetables (50 kg of fruit and over 40 kg of fresh vegetables) and 31 kg of processed fruit and vegetables.



The classics such as leek, onions and carrots hitching a ride on the cooking hype
The vegetable assortment has gone through a number of remarkable rises and falls over the last decade. Some of the biggest growers were roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, Chinese cabbage and asparagus. Vine tomatoes also grew strongly and took the place of the ordinary single tomatoes. The category of 'other foreign vegetables' saw its purchasing volume almost double, but fruiting vegetables that are grown here such as aubergine, courgette and peppers did very well. The classics such as leek, onions and carrots hitched a ride on the cooking hype and continued to grow strongly. Cabbage varieties such as cauliflowers, white, red and green cabbage did less well. Their volumes were halved. Head lettuce and celery also decreased.

Carrots most popular vegetable variety
With 6.3 kg per head, carrot were the most popular vegetable in 2012 and so overtook the tomatoes as most purchased vegetable. Tomatoes followed in second place with 6.1 kg per head. In third place are onions, with 4.5 kg per head, on the increase. The national pride chicory is at number four with 3.5 kg, but is losing ground. Lettuce is in fifth place with 2.6 kg and went through an increase of 4% in the last decade. Within the lettuce assortment it was mainly iceberg lettuce and special lettuce varieties that gained territory, whereas head lettuce lost ground. The rest of the top ten; leek, pepper, mushrooms and courgettes, are strong growers, with the exception of cauliflower, which decreased greatly in the last ten years.



Vine tomato becoming market leader in tomato market
The share of the normal (single) tomatoes was almost three quarters in 2000, and now has decreased to around 36%, The vine tomatoes have taken the place of the single tomatoes. This segment doubled its market share in ten years time, from 20 to 40%. The share is now stabilising around 38%. The trend towards the more 'special' tomato continues. Cherry tomatoes now have a market share of 11% and long roma tomatoes are worth 15% of the tomato market. The retail price of cherry tomatoes was 2 and a half times higher last year than that of the normal single tomatoes. Vine tomatoes were 7% more expensive and long roma tomatoes were 30% more expensive than the normal, single tomatoes.

The toppers apple and orange decrease within the fruit assortment

There was a huge growth for the smaller segments of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries in the fruit assortment over the last ten years. In the medium segment it was mainly the pineapple (245%) that increased. Within the top ten the biggest growth was for bananas (+26%), strawberries (+26%), kiwis (+17%) and mandarins (+17%). The biggest decrease was for grapefruit, rhubarb and peaches. The toppers apple and orange also decrease more than normal and lost market share in the fruit assortment.

Apples remain number one in the fruit basket
Apples remain at the number one in the fruit top ten with a consumption of around 10 kg per head. They saw their market share decrease from 22% to less than 20% over the last ten years. They are followed by oranges in second place, with a small 9 kg. This fruit lost more ground that the apple. Third place was filled by bananas at slightly over 8 kg. Bananas are the big winner in the top ten, as they saw their market share rise from 12% to 16% in the last decade. After the top three come mandarins and their kind, with over 4 kg. Pear went through a slight increase, and took fifth place with 3 kg. Another typical domestic product; the strawberry, took eighth place with 1.7 kg per head. Lemons close the ranks at number ten.

The Jonagold remains the most important apple variety, but sees its volume share within this category decrease from 52% to 43%. This for the benefit of the 'new' apple varieties, such as Pink Lady, Kanzi and Belgica. The last variety went through a difficult time in 2012.
Over two thirds of the pear assortment consists of Conference. This share has grown strongly in last ten years, but is now stabilising. One in six pears bought is a Doyenné du Comice.

Old and young products
Per variety there are products that are bought relatively more by younger families, and others that are bought relatively more by older families. Vegetables that are popular among younger families are cucumber, paprika's and peppers. Other 'young' products are cherry tomatoes and the new lettuce varieties. Vegetables that are bought more by older families are celery, beans, legumes, chicory and white asparagus. Fresh fruit is also generally well received by pensioners. Especially pears, stone fruits, citrus fruits and small fruits are popular among the older popualtion. For young singles (under 40's) exotic fruit does better than other fruits varieties. Families with children on the other hand, tend to choose apples, bananas and kiwis.



Hard discount local supermarket are the winners
as far as distribution is concerned there was a further growth of the hard discount (21.6% market share) and the local supermarket (14.3% market share) in 2012, to the detriment of, mainly, the public market and the speciality stores. These two channels are the biggest losers of the past decade. They saw their market share shrink continually from 12.9 to 6.1% and from 8.9 to 4.2% respectively.
The market leader DIS 1 is under pressure on the long term, but remained stable last year at  47.6% market share.

Source: Fresh Plaza (http://goo.gl/VQFA5)

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