As we move away from the spikes in sales that we saw due to unexpected events and towards more “regular” market trends, frozen foods still show good performance in terms of sales, especially when it comes to the retail channel. Europe remains the largest market overall, and with the level of interest shown by consumers in recent years, figures can only go up.
The global frozen food market is projected to reach a valuation of USD602,257bn by 2032, with sales growing at a CAGR of 6.7% during the next 10 years. Europe’s frozen food market accounts for a 40.9% share of the total global market. North America is expected to be the most opportunistic with a 33.4% share of the total frozen food market. The data comes from the latest report by Future Market Insights, and while it doesn’t cover just the retail channel, it shows a very clear upward trajectory for the European market.
The Frozen Food Report released by the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) this year shows that retail frozen food sales have grown by 13.5%, compared to pre-pandemic levels, suggesting that consumers have truly fallen back in love with their freezers. The data shows that frozen sales have kept up their speed despite restaurants, cafes, and pubs reopening in April 2021 after more than a year of restrictions. The research states that the increase in eating out has resulted in fewer purchases being made at stores and smaller shopping carts, which has caused the frozen food market’s value growth to drop to 1.2% annually.
The retail industry is now back to pre-pandemic levels after two years of upheaval, but frozen has seen over 400,000 extra customers in that time. The retail frozen food sector is now valued at GBP7.1bn and has had an increase in sales of around GBP850 million since 2019—a value rise of +13.5% and volume growth of +9.2%, respectively. Frozen sales have greatly exceeded the market, which has seen a general flattening of the overall grocery industry.
According to the BFFF survey, consumers may have sought to freeze out of a need in 2020, but they have returned through choice in 2021. Ice cream is the largest single frozen food category, according to Kantar, accounting for GBP1.3bn in retail sales and 18.6% of all frozen food sales, up from 17.3% in 2019. Sales of frozen fish surpassed the GBP1bn mark in 2020, and in just two years, they increased by 16.4% (GBP141.2 million). Vegetarian and vegan products have grown by 16.8% since 2019, BFFF reports, and this rise has helped savory food sales increase by GBP237.4 million (19.8%) during the same time period.
To read the entire article, please access your complimentary e-copy of Frozen Food Europe November-December, 2022 issue here.