Currants struggle to maintain the interest of Italian families after 2021, when, due to the pandemic and the enthusiasm for homemade cakes, there was a record increase in sales (+26% compared to 2020).
In fact, according to Italian Berry - GfK data, spending on currants has decreased by 9.3% in recent months (July 2022 - June 2023), dropping from 6.6 to 6.0 million euros. Quantities have decreased to a greater extent (-12.2%), reducing from 537 to 471 tonnes during the period under review.
The case of currants highlights another issue that has negatively affected consumption: although penetration has remained unchanged (3.5% of Italian families buy currants at least once over the years), the number of purchasing families has decreased due to the overall decline in the number of Italian families, which lost about 6,000 purchasing families in one year.
The factor that has had the greatest impact on the decline in consumption, however, has been the average purchase per household, which has decreased from almost 5 baskets of 125g each per year to just over 4, representing an 11.7% decrease.
Even the average annual spending has decreased (-8.7%), going from EUR 7.35 to EUR 6.71 per family.
Spending has decreased despite the fact that the average prices of currants have seen a 3.4% increase (compared to a +2.6% in the small fruits category), reaching EUR 12.81/kg, equivalent to about EUR 1.60 for a 125g package.
The Italian family bought currants more frequently (on average 1.7 times a year, +11.0%), but for each purchase, both the quantity (0.300 kg with a 20.4% decrease) and the value decreased, registering a 17.8% decrease (from EUR 4.73 to EUR 3.89).
In the Italian market, there has been a gradual erosion of currant prices and also of the price differential with blueberries, which has gone from +15% / +20% to +5% / +10%.
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