The survey was conducted on 22/10/2024 in the urban area of Florence (Italy) and involved 15 stores from 15 banners belonging to 10 retail groups.
The assortments of the following banners' stores were recorded: Carrefour express, Carrefour Market, Conad City, Conad Superstore, Coop, Dpiù, Esselunga, Eurospin, IN's, Ipercoop, Lidl, Naturasì, Pam, PAM local, Penny.
The berry category in Florence is showing early signs of returning to normality, with more acceptable stock levels and quality compared to previous weeks. Blueberries continue to show a variety of origins (Portugal, Poland, and Peru), but generally, the quality is good. For raspberries and blackberries, price issues persist, although raspberry prices have softened: low turnover often leads to long inventory periods (as evident from an analysis of the punnet labels) and questionable quality.
Assortment
In the berry category in the stores visited, the number of SKUs ranged from 1 to 7, with an average of 3.4 SKUs per store.
In the 15 stores visited where berry assortments were available:
- 7% had kiwiberry in their assortment
- 73% had raspberries in their assortment
- 87% had blueberries in their assortment
- 67% had blackberries in their assortment
- 47% had red currants in their assortment
- 20% had a mixed berry assortment
Range Width
- 13% of stores with berries in their assortment had only one SKU available.
- 47% of stores with berries in their assortment had 2 or 3 SKUs available.
- 40% of stores with berries in their assortment had 4 or more SKUs available.
Quality
The groups with the best quality were Eurospin, Lidl,
Selling Prices
- Raspberries (15 observations): min. €18.32/kg, max. €28/kg, average €22.63/kg.
- Blueberries (18 observations): min. €15.96/kg, max. €32/kg, average €25.51/kg.
- Blackberries (11 observations): min. €23.84/kg, max. €32/kg, average €27.8/kg.
- Red currants (8 observations): min. €18.24/kg, max. €23.92/kg, average €22.16/kg.
- Mixed berries (4 observations): min. €16.75/kg, max. €26.53/kg, average €21.31/kg.
- Overall total (56 observations): min. €15.96/kg, max. €32/kg, average €24.41/kg.
| Banner | Bis | Kiwiberry | Raspberries | Blueberries | Blackberries | Red Currants | Mixed Berries | Total |
| Naturasì | 31.84 | 31.84 | ||||||
| PAM local | 28.00 | 32.00 | 32.00 | 30.67 | ||||
| Carrefour express | 30.80 | 26.24 | 28.52 | |||||
| Carrefour Market | 28.00 | 28.00 | ||||||
| Pam | 22.45 | 26.32 | 31.92 | 22.32 | 25.75 | |||
| Dpiù | 22.00 | 27.60 | 24.80 | |||||
| Conad Superstore | 23.84 | 26.00 | 27.84 | 23.04 | 21.64 | 24.47 | ||
| Coop | 28.90 | 21.08 | 22.68 | 26.24 | 22.24 | 24.23 | ||
| Ipercoop | 23.90 | 22.24 | 26.24 | 26.24 | 22.24 | 24.17 | ||
| Penny | 18.32 | 27.92 | 23.92 | 23.39 | ||||
| Esselunga | 21.97 | 25.44 | 23.84 | 18.24 | 25.20 | 22.94 | ||
| Conad City | 17.44 | 23.84 | 26.00 | 27.84 | 23.04 | 16.75 | 22.49 | |
| Lidl | 22.32 | 19.96 | 21.14 | |||||
| IN's | 18.32 | 23.92 | 21.12 | |||||
| Eurospin | 19.94 | 19.94 |
Brand
In the stores visited, there were berries from a total of 15 brands.
The brand with the highest average prices in the category was Agrologicabio.
The brand with the lowest average prices for blueberries was Southern Sun, followed by Moderna srl.
Packaging
83% of the blueberry SKUs recorded were sold in packages with a net weight of 125g.
