The berry category has real potential to continue its recent strong growth, a senior industry analyst has claimed, as new figures show the sector has defied the pressure of the ongoing economic crisis.
UK soft-fruit sales have tripled in the last 12 years to £783 million [52 w/e 12 March], with the category back in strong growth after flatter sales in 2010, Kantar Worldpanel director Ed Garner told the Global Berry Congress in London.
“Berries are not an essential part of the shopping basket - they are an optional purchase,” Garner said. “But the sector is doing remarkably well.”
The berry category as a whole has grown at 12 per cent in the past year, with strawberries up 10 per cent, raspberries 18 per cent, blueberries 13 per cent and blackberries seven per cent. Overall volume sales are up by eight per cent, with household penetration now at 80 per cent.
Crucially, the growth has chiefly come through purchase frequency, indicating shoppers are buying into the category more often rather than simply buying more on promotion.
“This shows that berries are becoming more a part of consumers' lifestyle, which bodes well for the future,” Garner said.
Promotions remain a key tool for supermarkets, with 57 per cent of berries sold on deal in the last three years, compared with 29 per cent for the fruit and vegetable category overall.
Garner also suggested that raspberries could be “the story” of the category this year, following on from all the good publicity given to blueberries in recent times. Raspberry sales are growing at 12 per cent in volume, with a 12.2 per cent rise in purchase frequency.
Speaking about the supermarkets' low-price strategies, Garner said: “Tesco's Big Price Drop didn't really work. Everyone is talking about price now and the more [the other retailers] advertise it, the less of a differentiator it becomes. The Big Price Drop has been defused by competitor activity.”
He also described a “two nation” culture having emerged in the UK, with both the premium retailers and hard discounters having grown ahead of the grocery market overall.
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