In the last 12 months, blackberries have attracted over 200,000 new Italian households, marking an increase of 14.8% compared to the previous period. Now, there are more than 1.6 million households that purchase blackberries at least once a year. The data, from Italian Berry – GfK, covers the period from 01/07/22 to 30/06/23 and is collected from a panel of Italian households.
The number of purchasing households and market penetration have been recovering in recent periods but have not yet reached the levels of 2020. Over the last three years, penetration had declined from 7% to 5.7%, with a concerning loss of consumers.
While new buyers enter the market, purchase behavior has shown a different trend: all indices describing consumer behavior are decreasing.
Annual spending on blackberries has decreased by 21%, going from EUR 5.69 to EUR 4.49; with an average price of EUR 13.82/kg, this translates to an average of 2.6 packages of 125g per year. The total revenue decrease, although cushioned by the growth in consumer numbers, has been 9.3%. Italian households have spent a total of EUR 7.2 million on blackberries in the last 12 months.
Overall quantities have also decreased, amounting to 523 tons (-9.8%) due to the drop in per capita volumes, which went from 0.41 kg to 0.33 kg (-21.4%).
In conclusion, blackberries still maintain a certain level of attractiveness and continue to attract the interest of new buyers; however, they are losing space in the shopping cart and, together with raspberries and currants, contribute to dimming the category's performance.
Analyzing individual purchase acts (trips), a drastic decrease in frequency is noticeable: blackberries were bought 2.3 times a year, but in the last twelve months, this has decreased to 1.8 occasions per year.
For each purchase, Italian consumers have reduced both the quantities purchased (-2.6%) and spending (-2.0%) in the last 12 months: on average, for each purchase act, a household spends EUR 2.44 to add 0.18 kg of blackberries to the cart (just under 1.5 packages of 125g each).
The price differential between blackberries and raspberries has varied between 8% and 14% between 2020 and 2023.
