"We are eating more often, faster, more functionally and cheaper"

During the Europatat Congress 2014 Virginie Pernin of the GIRA Foodservice spoke about the trend in the European Food service market. She indicated that this market can be divided into the commercial and social food service market. "At the moment the turnover of the out-of-home market is at 1,900 billion Euro per year globally. Europe has a share of 45 billion Euro. The UK is number one in Europe, followed by Austria and the Netherlands in third place."

Quick Service's growing share
"Social food service covers companies, schools, hospitals and other institutes. Those who are active in the commercial food service have a solely commercial goal, such as restaurants, hotels, transport and catering companies. The commercial food service grew rapidly until 2008, and there was light growth after the crisis. Almost 60% of the growth between 2002 and 2012 was due to the growing share of Quick Service Restaurants. These include McDonalds, Yum! Brands and Burger King. What is striking is that the United Kingdom consumes the most meals outside of the home in Europe, at 166 per person per year. Austria follows at 143 and Holland with 136 meals. The average amount of meals per person per year has remained reasonably stable from 2002 to 2012. In 2002 it was 123 and in 2012 people ate 122 meals outside of their homes."

Trends that influence food service
"World wide trends that influence the food service are social, economic and political factors, such as a change in lifestyle, more woman working, and older population, financial crisis and consumers' awareness of health and sustainability. The main conclusions for the food service market in this are: we eat more often, more cheaply, faster, more and more functional. The demand for more functionality has meant that people snack more." She expects the share of Quick Service restaurants to continue to grow until 2020, even reaching 44%. The social food service will take up only 33% in 2020. This share was 50% in 1980. In short, the demand from consumers has switched to a combination in which these things are important: is it good for me, my image and the planet?"

She indicated that the food service concepts have become increasingly diverse. "You can now not only choose from unhealthy fast food, but also from 'fast casual' and 'greener' and more healthy concepts, such as Exki (Belgium), Dean & David (Germany). Ethnic food has now reached all segments."

What does this mean for the potato market?
The food service market will only grow in the future, and according to Virginie, this is very positive for all agrarian sectors. There will be more demand for processed products. In France it was discovered that the share of fresh potatoes has continued to decline. In 2002 it was 29%, but it has dropped to 13% in 2012. The share of processed potatoes increased in these years from 81% to 87%. There is an increase in potato specialities from the processed segment, but the share of chips in France has declined from 66% to 60%."

For more information:
www.girafoodservice.com