Italy rediscovered the consumption of pasta during the winter of 2022. This is one of the most striking figures to emerge from the surveys carried out for TUTTOFOOD 2023 by IRI on sales in the large-scale retail trade. This commodity experienced a great exploit between January and March, which increased by +19.3% to 343 million euro. In March alone, the increase was as much as one-third (+31.9 percent) reaching 150 million euro (149 million euro in value).

Italians also indulged in a few treats. In fact, besides health trends, consumers appreciate recreational foods such as Fresh Desserts. The latter confirmed double digits (15.6 %) between January and March reaching sales of 96 million euro in value. An increase of 15.1 % was achieved in March alone, with sales close to 50 million euro (49 million euro in value).

Amid “comfort food”, meat and the relaunch of Beverage

Also from this perspective, the resilience of Sweet Snacks was interesting: during the three months they increased by a little more than 1% (+1.1%), but totalled an impressive 562 million euro in value. Baked Goods and Cereals also remained stable, with a profit of +0.4% totalling 862 million euro. However, in March the increase was almost 3% (2.7%) reaching 344 million euro.

Interesting, too, is the rise in Packaged Meat, despite the emergence of vegetarian and vegan trends in recent years. Between January and March, the increase was nearly 10 % (8.5 %), with 277 million euro in value. Overall, packaged food contained losses (-3.5 %), totalling 12,971 million euro in value.

Finally, Beverage bounced back strongly, driven by the further easing of restrictions in the away-from-home sector. Between January and March, trade in alcoholic beverages, non-alcoholic beverages, beer and wine in the wholesale channel boomed by almost 106% (105.9%) to 391 million euro in value. In February, the increase was more than 80% (82.2%) with 218 million euro in sales.

In a complex market scenario, we are looking at positive signs in the run-up to TUTTOFOOD 2023, at fieramilano from 8 to 11 May 2023.