Scandinavia – A Leading Region

Scandinavia

In the actual landscape of Frozen Foods, Scandinavia is showing promising growth of a real 2.1% annually during the 2012-2017 period. The European market consequently rose from EUR91.5bn in 2012 to EUR100.9bn in 2017, representing an average annual increase of EUR 1.6bn.

By Alan Deane, founding partner and Ana-Maria Tatucu, head of research Food for Thought

This positive development is supported by a number of factors:

  • Frozen foods are appreciated for their healthy lifestyle approach, but also for the simplicity of their dishes.
  • The European urban consumer is looking for good quality food,
  • Convenience, meaning less time to spend in the kitchen.
  • An ever-widening frozen foods assortment is exploiting the out-of-the-ordinary, illustrated by the exotic tastes of Millennials, but not only.
  • New ingredients such as algae, acerola, quinoa, coffee fruit, Ayurveda spices are building up new culinary interest. They are much more accessible in frozen format, easy to store in a small modern kitchen and also easier to prepare for new dishes.

Looking to the future, the forecast is for continued real 3.1% annual growth, taking the total market to EUR114.4bn in 2020.

A stylish cooking style

Scandinavian Food has developed a new stylish cooking style in recent years, that translates into high expectations by the consumer. Per capita expenditures are now in the EUR 200 – 300 range annually.

Sweden leads in Frozen Food Expenditure per capita. Beside the slightly higher prices of Frozen Foods in Sweden, this positioning owes much to the high interest in high quality ingredients. Organic vegetables or meat, gluten free, low fat are some the key factors increasing the value of frozen food expenditure in Sweden. Sweden is naturally also the leading market by value in Scandinavia with EUR3.1bn in 2017. 

Leading Product Markets in Scandinavia

The top 3 products as market size in the Scandinavian market are Ice Cream, Frozen Convenience Meat and Frozen Pastry.  These 3 product markets account for a little over 50% of the Scandinavian Frozen Food Market. Ice Cream is the leading market with a 20% share of the total of frozen food market in Scandinavia, but is followed closely by Frozen Convenience Meat (19%) and Frozen Pastry (15%).

Growth Expected

In terms of 2012-2017 average annual growth by value in current EUR in Scandinavia, the leading markets were Ice Cream (EUR28m), followed by Frozen Pastry(EUR22m),  and Frozen Ready Meals (EUR17m). Real % growth in constant prices ranges between 2.8% and 3.3% of these markets.

In contrast, in average annual real % growth terms, leading markets were Frozen Pizza (3.76%), Frozen Soup (3.63%) and Frozen Fish (3.43%).

Ice Cream is benefitting from evolving consumer habits. New healthy trends support the consumption of ice cream with lower sugar or lower fat content, or with healthy sweeteners such as stevia. Of course, the traditional ice cream assortment is stable and supports the positive dynamics of this product.

Frozen Pastry is supported by traditional Scandinavian desserts and various snacks baked in the home.

The evolution of the Frozen Ready Meals market is particularly interesting.  The product shows strong growth by value as well as in annual % growth due to a rich diversification of this product,  and the introduction of exotic products and ethnical foods.