In 2016, the total frozen food market (TK) in Germany once again registered a substantial volume growth of 2.5 percent. Frozen foods are becoming more and more popular every year. This is shown by the current data collected by DTI (Deutsches Tiefkühlinstitut [German Frozen Food Institute]). The total sales of TK products in Germany rose to 3.632 million metric tonnes in 2016 (3.542 million metric tonnes in 2015). Sales of frozen products rose by 3.6 percent to €13.806 billion (€13.325 billion in 2015).
The average per capita consumption of TK in 2016 rose by almost 1kg to the new peak of 45.4kg - last year it was still 44.5kg*. Each household in Germany consumed an average of 91.5kg of frozen food. Thus, the TK industry is once again looking back on a very successful business year.
Consumers look for fast solutions
TK recorded a moderate growth of 1 percent in the food retail trade, including home services. The sales volume reached 1.805 million metric tonnes. Revenues from TK products in the retail sector rose by 2 percent to €7.570 billion.
The figures show a trend in nutrition and cooking: consumers are looking for simple, fast and healthy solutions in their daily diet and cooking routines - TK offers these in a variety of high quality forms - and above all without preservatives. Particularly popular therefore are frozen meals and pizzas, followed by vegetables. It takes on average 25 minutes to prepare a meal and every third meal takes 10 minutes. There is no time for washing and peeling vegetables or preparing an elaborate meat dish. Consumers also often like to combine frozen products with fresh ones.
Today, cooking is, of course, a combination of ready-to-eat food and freshly prepared ingredients. This is confirmed by the recent Nestlé study, "How Germany Cooks in 2016". Professional chefs are also increasingly using frozen products.
The DTI sales statistics is the only source for market data which captures both the development of TK in the home and in the retail industry as well as the professional users in Germany's non-domestic industry.
