In the German fresh fruit and vegetable market, February showed an overall weak picture, but it is above all the berry segment that stands out negatively. According to the YouGov Consumer Index, after a stable January, the berries segment recorded a sharp reversal in the second month of the year, with a double-digit contraction in both value and, above all, volume.
The overall context helps to better interpret the data. The broader category of fresh fruit, vegetables and potatoes closed February with a 0.4% decline in revenue, in a market that remains largely stagnant and less dynamic compared to total food, which grew by 0.4%. However, this is not a generalized consumption crisis: overall, volumes in the aggregate increased by 1.2%, while the average price declined by 1.6%. In other words, the weakness in revenue was mainly driven by an unfavorable price effect.
Within this scenario, fruit showed a more fragile performance compared to other segments, with a 2.1% drop in volumes and a 3.7% decline in revenue. But the most relevant data concerns berries, which experienced a clearly difficult phase in February: revenue fell by 14.3%, while sales volumes collapsed by 25.1% compared to the same month of the previous year. A very sharp downsizing that signals a clear slowdown in demand.
What is particularly striking is that the decline was not accompanied by a drop in prices, quite the opposite. In the berries segment, the average price level increased by 14.4%. This means that the market reacted to lower availability or higher cost pressures with price increases, but this was not enough to sustain turnover. German consumers, at least in February, purchased fewer berries despite the higher unit value of the product.
The comparison with other segments of the fruit and vegetable department makes the weakness of berries even more evident. Exotic fruits, for example, continued to grow: pineapple recorded a 25.6% increase in volumes, while avocados gained 10% in volume and 14.7% in value. Fresh vegetables also showed solid performance, with +1.3% in volumes, +4% in revenue and +2.7% in prices. Finally, fresh potatoes recorded a strong recovery in purchased quantities (+10%), despite a significant drop in prices.
For berries, therefore, February in Germany appears as a month of clear discontinuity compared to the stability observed in January. The data suggests that the segment is particularly exposed to consumer sensitivity to final prices and, more broadly, to a demand-supply balance that can change rapidly. In a context where other categories manage to maintain or strengthen consumption, the sharp slowdown in berries deserves attention, as it may reflect positioning issues, accessibility constraints, or perceived seasonality.
For those operating along the supply chain, the German market thus confirms a well-known but increasingly evident aspect: in the berries segment, a higher average price alone is not enough to protect value if volumes contract so sharply. And this is precisely the most important signal that emerged in February.
Source: Fruchthandel
