As the holiday season approaches, it is time to take an initial stock of 2022 based on the available data, which, at the time of going to press, are current through October. Overall, annual growth in Packaged Food was 5.2 percent to a total of 44,400 million euros, while an increase of 7.8 percent was reported in October, touching the threshold of nearly 4,200 million euros (4,177 million).

Italians divided between comfort food and essentials

The summer months developed trends that were confirmed in the first warm month of autumn. In fact, some commodities grew in double digits in October, more than the price increase, such as Ice Cream for a total of 44 million and a 23.9 percent increase. Since the beginning of the year, ice cream has increased by 15.5 percent to over 1 billion (1,031 million).

These data show a market split between the pursuit of comfort food and loyalty to essentials. The first category, in addition to ice cream, includes Recurrences, which has grown since the beginning of the year by 13.8 percent to 620 million.  The second category includes Pasta and  Meat packaged by weight. The trend developed during the pandemic is reconfirmed, with Pasta booming to 19 percent to 109 million in October. The growth since January was 18.3 percent for a total of more than 1 billion: 1,074 million. Finally, meat reported a 12.4 percent increase in October to 93 million. Since the beginning of the year, the growth recorded was 12.3 percent, also close to the billion mark, with 932 million.

According to data from the Beverage Wholesalers Channel (Integrated and Consortia), the Beverage sector is always growing (+11.9%), and in September it stood at 364 million. Between January and September, the increase was 42.3 percent, totaling 3,233 million euros. Thus, the increases triggered by reopening and consumers' increasing propensity to return to the out-of-home experience continues.

Data and research presentations will be many at TUTTOFOOD 2023, at fieramilano from May 8 to 11, 2023.  Find out here how to be featured as an exhibitor. To participate as a professional visitor, go to this page.