Thursday, 09 Aug 2012
“The catering/gastronomy sector offers good opportunities for UK suppliers.”
Loch Fyne Kippers (c) Monkey Business Images /Shutterstock
Food and drink sector in Germany
Market overview
The consumer market as a whole had a good year in 2011 with an overall value of some €400 billion and has remained stable during the first half of 2012.
The food and drink retail trade saw a small rise in value to €169 billion in 2011.
Whereas the German food and drink industry is made up of over 5,500 mainly medium to small sized companies, nearly 73% of the retail trade is accounted for by the following five large groups:
Edeka Group that operates supermarkets and the Netto Discounter (25.3%) www.edeka.de
Rewe Group that operates supermarkets and the Penny discounter (14.9%) http://www.rewe-group.com/en/
Schwarz-Group that operates the Lidl discounter and Kaufland hypermarket chain (13.8%) www.lidl.de
Aldi Group - Aldi North and Aldi South discounters (12%) www.aldi.de
Metro Group that operates cash&carry outlets and the "real" hypermarket chain (6.8%) http://www.metro24.de/pages/DE/HomePage
The market share of the discounters fell slightly during 2011 to 43% and the major supermarkets were able to increase their share of the market. This was in part due to the supermarkets introducing more private label products, but was also a sign that consumers are moving to more service and quality oriented retailers.
Key opportunities
The consumer market as a whole had a good year in 2011 with an overall value of some €400 billion and has remained stable during the first half of 2012.
Current trends on the German food and drink retail scene are for:
health/wellfoods
organic foods
convenience foods
private label production
Fair Trade and Sustainability are also becoming more important with consumers and Fair Trade products are reported to have had a total value of some €400 million in 2011. Coffee and chocolate are the most sold Fair Trade products.
Consumers are increasingly interested in health/wellness foods. "Traffic light" labels on products are, however, not used in Germany.
The organic foods sector saw increased sales of 9.9% in 2011. With 3-4% of the overall retail trade, organic foods had a value of €2.5 billion.
Private label products have a high level of consumer acceptance and continue to be of importance.
The catering/gastronomy sector offers good opportunities for UK suppliers. The sector as a whole had a total value of €66.43 billion in 2011, an increase in sales of 3.4% compared with 2010. This was the largest growth for five years and forecasts are for continued growth in 2012.
Full service restaurants still account for the largest share of the catering/gastronomy market. Fast food restaurants are, however, gaining in importance.
Latest export opportunities – Food & Drink
Latest export opportunities - Germany
Getting into the market
The main route to market is via wholesalers/distributors as well as commission agents that supply the food and drink retail and catering sectors. Many of these operate on a regional basis and it is often necessary to work with more than one partner to obtain nationwide coverage.
Some supermarkets buy direct, but they often prefer to deal with a local in-market partner, particularly when taking on a new product.
The UKTI Food and Drink trade team in Düsseldorf would be pleased to advise you about finding suitable business partners.
More about doing business in Germany
Contacts
Market intelligence is critical when doing business overseas, and UKTI can provide bespoke market research and support during overseas visits though our chargeable Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS).
To commission research or for general advice about the market, get in touch with our specialists in country - or contact your local international trade team.
Nicola Marx, British Consulate-General Duesseldorf. Tel: +49 (0)211 9448-244 or email: Nicola.Marx@fco.gov.uk.
Baerbel Asare, British Consulate-General Duesseldorf. Tel: +49 (0)211 9448 218 or email: Baerbel.Asare@fco.gov.uk
Contact your local international trade team
UKTI Events
UKTI runs a range of events for exporters, including seminars in the UK, trade missions to overseas markets and support for attendance at overseas trade shows.
Other events
ISM - World's biggest confectionery trade fair, Cologne
27 - 30 January 2013
http://www.ism-cologne.com/en/ism/home/index.php
BioFach - World organic trade fair, Nuremberg
13 - 16 February 2013
Anuga - The World's leading food fair, Cologne
5 - 9 October 2013
http://www.anuga.com/en/anuga/home/index.php
Internorga - Leading trade fair for catering and food service, Hamburg
8 - 13 March 2013