The French foodservice sector served 4.3bn meals in 2012, 52m fewer year on year, with a 4 per cent drop in private restaurants and a stable public sector, according to trade body FranceAgriMer.
The public sector accounts for two-thirds of food service catering, in which catering contractors have posted growth against the 1 per cent decline recorded by in-house management.
Local authority-run school catering services are responding to budgetary pressures by looking more closely at local procurement and consolidating the buying of vegetables.
Health sector catering has grown by 1 per cent year on year, more slowly than in previous years, while defence cuts have led to a 2 per cent drop in meals served.
Total foodservice procurement of frozen vegetables was stable at 255,000 tonnes. 70 per cent of this was in single vegetable products, 19 per cent in mixes and the rest in more complex products.
The sector spent a total of €482m on frozen and canned vegetables, paying 2 per cent more on average for frozen products but with stable canned vegetable prices.
A summary of the full study can be downloaded here.
