NielsenΙQ: Food market turnover decreased at Easter

This year, the total turnover of organized food retail decreased by 5.4% in the week before Easter (24/04/22), compared to the same period last year (2/5/21). This is according to a NielsenIQ study, according to which all major product categories showed negative trends, while the most intense were those of the bazaar products whose turnover decreased by 13.5%, as well as the products for the care of the household, which had losses of 10.7%.

In any case, however, it is pointed out that despite the negative growth rates, the total market turnover is significantly enhanced compared to the pro-covid era, ie by 12.8%.

Rise outside large urban centers

At the level of geographical areas, the urban centers of Athens and Thessaloniki recorded the most negative trends, with the percentages of falling turnover reaching 12.7% and 11.1% respectively, as well as after two consecutive years with lockdowns and restrictions on travel, consumers seem to have chosen to spend Easter in rural areas. This fact explains the significant growth, recorded by sales in the region of Central Greece by 9.3%, but also in the Peloponnese by 11.4%.

Fall in lamb prices

In the fresh and bulk products, for which NielsenIQ now has data at the category level, the drop in total turnover was also reflected in the meat category, which usually does very well due to Easter Sunday, with sales recording an overall decrease of -1.7%.

Lamb meat, as a whole, fell by -3.4%, and more specifically, lamb by -2.6% and goat by -5.7%, while adult sheep were the surprise, with increased sales by 52.4%, however with a small share in the sales of the meat category as a whole.

What emerges from the study of the trends of the sub-categories is that the consumer this year probably preferred to replace the spear with other meat products, whose sales increased by 4.7%, while at the same time the increase in sales of beef was a result of the increase. of its price and not of sales volume, since it moved yes positively in turnover, to + 8.3%, but was down in volume by -4.6%.

Poultry gained ground

Finally, for the other categories of fresh-bulk products, there was an upward trend for poultry and chicken, which recorded higher sales by 5.5% and 5.7% respectively, while vegetables remained at the same level as last year, for which a marginally increased trend was recorded at + 0.6%, with tomatoes (+ 11.6%), cucumbers (+ 17.2%), but also lettuce (+ 33.2%) keeping down, due to price increases, the total turnover of vegetables.