One of the reasons behind it is the fact that there is a lot of fresh produce available as an alternative. "In Italy, the per capita consumption is 13/14 kg a year, while in the rest of Europe, if we exclude the countries on the Mediterranean, consumption is 40/50 and even 60 kg per capita. We will never reach this figure, but we can grow."
Consumption has increased a bit in 2015, while SG Marketing data explains that, between August 2015 and August 2016, the frozen vegetable sector grew by 1.4% in volumes and will grow by another 2.6% until 2020.
In 2015, little over 824 thousand tons of frozen products were sold, including fish, meat, semi-processed pasta, pizza, snacks, dishes and desserts. But the main quantities were still vegetables, which represented 50% of the volumes, and potatoes.
Contrarily, it must be reported that fruit only covers 0.2% of volumes sold in the frozen sector. For each kg of frozen fruit, 244 kg of frozen vegetables and 90 kg of frozen potatoes are sold. This is due to the fact that a lot of fresh fruit is available in Italy.
Vittorio Gagliardi, President of the Istituto Italiano Alimenti Surgelati, at Cibus Tec.
Nonetheless, the frozen fruit and vegetable sector is growing. "In the beginning, frozen products were perceived as only useful in an 'emergency', whereas now they have become part of everyday cooking, as they are 'anti-crisis' products thanks to their constant price. In addition, they are also 'anti-waste' - a research conducted in the UK estimated that an increase in the use of frozen products could lead to 40% less waste. In addition, they are healthy because they are preservative and additive-free."
As explained by Salvo Garipoli (in the photo) from SG Marketing, "consumers do not have the same perception as the Istituto Italiano Alimenti Surgelati, because they do not know that peas, for example, are frozen within two hours of harvesting, so processing times are shorter than those of fresh produce." 35.4% of frozen produce, in fact, is sold under the distributor brand, who focuses on highlighting the origin of the produce.