The French government prices and market monitoring agency FranceAgriMer last week released a review of the fresh produce market from Christmas 2011 to August 2012.
This review aired Kantar Worldpanel data showing that French households bought 59kg of fruit (around 25kg per person) and spent just over €2/kg. Hypermarkets accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the market share, the rest being shared between hard discounters, greengrocers, markets and other outlets. Favourite fruits with home shoppers (market penetration for fruit was 89 per cent) include apples, bananas, oranges, clementines, peaches and nectarines.
Just over 91 per cent of households buy fresh vegetables, while some will grow all their vegetables. Vegetable shoppers paid an average of just over €2/kg to buy an average of 56.5kg per household, 24.6kg per person.
As before, hypermarkets account for 55 per cent of the purchases, of which favourite types included carrots, endives, courgettes and salad crops, while the data also defined melons and tomatoes as vegetables.
Sales of potatoes registered an 11 per cent year-on-year lift in sales. While average prices were less than €0.85/kg, market penetration is less than 50 per cent. This may be due to widespread home cultivation rather than potato avoidance by nearly half of all French consumers.
Organic fresh produce is one sector where there is true diversity in market share. It remains a statistically minor sector - just over four per cent of total purchases - for mainstream retailers, even if it is one in which they need a presence for credibility.
