Mike Neary, Director Meat & Horticulture, Bord Bia – Irish Food Board
Outcome reflected the influence of the long Summer drought
The fresh produce category is a key element of the total grocery market which is valued at €10.7bn with fresh produce contributing close to 15% of this value in 2018. The retail market for fresh produce was valued at €1.53bn in 2018 which was a slight increase of 0.2% on 2017. This was driven by a higher average shelf price across the whole category with overall volumes marginally back by 0.1% year on year. It is likely that last Summer’s severe drought which had a major impact on the growing season had some influence on this outcome. This category sub divides into fruit which was valued at €762m, vegetables valued at €565m and potatoes which were valued at €207m. last year.
The vegetable category was the one fresh produce category that recorded a reduction in its overall value in 2018 and was back 2.6% on the previous year. While the overall average unit price for the category was actually up by 0.7% the volume sold was back by 3.2% with a lower volume purchased per buyer a key contributor. As referenced earlier the growing season both in Ireland and the EU in 2018 was of the most challenging in living memory and impacted on the volume and quality of some key vegetable lines and this impact was felt in the marketplace.
The value of the fruit category was up by 0.7% with a higher average unit price on shelf of 1.9% across the category driving this trend and resulting in a lower volume purchased of 1.2 %. The purchase frequency by the fruit buyer remained stable at 107 purchase occasions in 2018.
The value of the potato category in 2018 was up significantly by 6.3%. The average unit price on shelf was up by 6.9% last year but despite this increase the volume purchased was only marginally back compared with 2017 by 0.5%. It was encouraging to see the overall purchase frequency for potatoes continue to increase in 2018 reaching 37 purchase occasions per annum continuing a trend of increasing potato sales at retail point over recent years. The summer drought reduced the volume of potatoes harvested in 2018 and available to the market.