Blackberries consumption suffered a double-digit decline on the Italian market in 2022: according to Italian Berry - GfK data, in fact, Italian households purchased 21.8 percent less blackberries than in 2021, resulting in a 20.9 percent drop in spending.
The blackberries, which are now grown year-round in Italy, are thus performing disappointingly, despite retail prices rising only 1.3 percent, well below inflation, which, according to Istat, was net of the energy bill at 8.1 percent in 2021.
What is the reason for this disappointing performance, which unfortunately confirms a trend that Italian Berry had already reported six months ago? Let us first look at the size of this phenomenon. The Italian blackberries market is worth € 7.3 million (2022), which compared to 9.2 million in 2021 represents a 20.9 percent drop.
In 2022, Italian households purchased 541 tons of blackberries, equivalent to 4.2 million 125g baskets. Compared with 2021, when consumption was 692 tons, 1.2 million baskets are therefore missing.
All indicators describing purchasing behavior show negative signs, indicating that the problems are complex and extensive. First of all, shopping opportunities have shrunk by 3.6 percent, and on average Italian households buy blackberries only 2 times a year.
And each time he goes to buy, the purchasing manager buys less and spends less. In fact, the quantity bought per buying occasion (0.18 kg in 2022) decreased by 2.7 percent from the previous year. Spending per buying occasion also decreased over the same period to €2.47, a 1.7 percent decrease.
As a result, the Italian household that purchased blackberries during 2022 took home a quantity of 0.37 kg(about three 125 g baskets), spending a total of € 5.04 over the twelve months. This is little, and in addition down 5.2 percent from € 5.32 in 2021. And this is despite a slight inflationary effect, which caused prices to increase by 1.1 percent, from € 13.16/Kg in 2021 to € 13.51 in 2022.
blackberries, like the other berries, is also discounting a worrying decline in penetration in 2022, from 6.7 percent to 5.7 percent in the past twelve months. This has resulted in a decrease in purchasing households of 290,000. During 2022, only 1.4 million households out of 25.6 purchased blackberries: it was 1.7 million only a year earlier.
The blackberries, a product that could be pushed for its Italian-ness by being available as a year-round local production, is disappointing consumers, who increasingly ignore them when they pass through the supermarket shelves. Despite substantially stable prices since 2021, consumers have declined and those who have stayed have reduced their purchases.
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