Despite the continued hard times, German consumption of frozen products increased once again in 2012, albeit only slightly.
Statistics from the Deutsches Tiefkühlinstitut (dti) show that per capita usage was 41.0 kilograms, compared to 40.9 in 2011. There was a very slight decline in consumption per household, 83.6 kilograms from 83.8, because, dti says, of a 200,000 increase in the number of households. Sales volume was also up slightly in the whole frozen food market (retail plus food service), with a 0.2% increase from 3.31 to 3.32 million tons. The value of it all exceeded EUR 12 billion for the first time, going from EUR 11.781 billion to 12.017 billion.
Foodservice volume, which had grown encouragingly in 2011, showed a slight, 0.7%, decline; 1.56 million tons from 2011’s 1.57 million. The dti attributes this to a shift from traditional restaurants to fast food establishments, resulting in more demand for baked goods, snacks, ready meals and pizza and less for fish, meat and vegetables. Despite the decline in volume, there was a 1.2% increase in the value of food service sales because of higher prices; 4.916 billion euros to 4.977 billion.
In retail sales, frozen food was one of the few product groups to show sales increases in both categories. In volume they were up 1.0% (from 1.740 to 1.757 million tons) and in value up 2.5%, from EUR 6.865 to 7.040 billion. The 2.5% gain in prices was due in part to increased raw material costs, the dti says, but resulted mainly from a trend to higher value products that required a more labor-intensive manufacturing processes.
Consumers, it says, increasingly value convenience in meal preparation, and are turning to such products as ready meals and snacks.
