Greeks store food in their cupboards due to Ukraine and increases

By George Lampiris

Signs of food storage are recorded by Greek households as in certain categories there is a very large increase in sales in the first week of March (before Shrove Monday) compared to the corresponding period last year, according to data from NielsenIQ.

It is typical to increase sales by 43.6% in pasta, legumes and flour by 20.6% and canned meat by 64.8%.

According to the company, the jump in sales is likely to be mainly due to consumer fears – due to the war in Ukraine – but also to their concerns about rising prices, which led them to buy larger quantities earlier to avoid burdened later with increases.

In fact, the trend of storage was very strong at the beginning of the pandemic, when due to the insecurity created, people rushed to buy products to store on their shelves, including food such as legumes, pasta and products such as toilet paper, household cleaners and antiseptics.

The highest price increases in seed oils and olive oil

At the same time, the price increases in basic food categories are strong, something that results from the strong growth rate of sales in value. It is characteristic that in the reference period seed oils increased their sales by 37.4% and olive oil by 33.9%, a fact which according to Nielsen IQ is due to the increase in the average selling price and not to the increase in sales volume and demand. for the specific goods.

At the same time, the total turnover in supermarkets increased by 5.1% in the week before Shrove Monday and the first week of March, according to the same data, compared to the same period last year.

The positive sales of fresh products decreased due to the opening of popular markets

Of the large product categories, fresh and by weighted products recorded the most modest positive trend, at + 1.1%, a fact that is most likely related to the return of consumers to the popular markets, as this year no restrictive measures were in force.

The strongest trend of sales growth at the level of 41.7% is presented by the large category of Bazaar products (clothing, electrical appliances, books, tools, garden items, car items, home equipment, etc.), as last year there were restrictions on the sale of some categories of durable goods from the super markets channel.

In fact, if one looks back at the turnover of Bazaar products two years ago, one is not significantly different from this year, a fact that indicates a normalization.

In addition, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) as a whole showed almost the same trend as the market as a whole, at + 5.0%. Of the individual categories of goods, personal care products recorded the largest increase to + 9.1%. It was followed by food and beverages with + 4.6% and the categories related to household products with + 4.5%.