On Saturday 3 December, Roamler visited 36 chains in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the UK and France at the request of FreshPlaza.com. The grape, bell pepper and Brussels sprout categories were put under scrutiny, and diversity of supply, price and country of origin were of particular interest. Many differences came to light. The Christmas edition of our Dutch magazine, Primeur features a report of the findings with an illustrative infographic. Mentioned below are the various research results:
Forty-Two per cent of the shops visited had one or two grape variants. Belgium had the most diverse grape assortment with 57 per cent of five or more grape varieties.
The highest measured prices per kilogram were Namibian grapes: 7.89 euro at Waitrose in the UK. The lowest price was measured for French grapes at Carrefour: 2 euro.
In 74 per cent of the shops, grapes were packaged per 500 grammes, except in France: in 94 per cent of the cases, people could weigh their own grapes.
Fifty-four per cent of visited shops had white Brazilian grapes. In France, supply mainly consisted of Italian grapes, as France does not import from Brazil.
Bell peppers
Fifty-four per cent of visited shops had four to six bell pepper varieties available. The shops in the UK and the Netherlands have the most varieties available.
Seventy-eight per cent of the visited shops sells red bell peppers singly, 71 per cent also sells red bell peppers differently, mainly packaged per three with two other colours.
The highest price per kilogram was at Hoogvliet and Poiesz in the Netherlands, with Spanish bell pepper for 7.08 euro. The lowest price per kilogram was 1.79 at Albert Heijn in Belgium, also for Spanish bell peppers.
Eighty-five per cent of visited shops import red bell peppers from Spain. The visited shops in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the UK also had locally cultivated bell peppers in the assortment.
Brussels sprouts
Ninety-three per cent of visited shops offers green Brussels sprouts.
In 96 per cent of the cases, the sprouts had been prepackaged. In Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK, you could weigh your own Brussels sprouts.
The highest price per kilogram was measured at an Asda Superstore in the UK: 6.46 euro for British sprouts. The lowest price was at Dirk in the Netherlands: 1.48 euro for Dutch sprouts.
Each country supplied local sprouts. Fifty-six per cent of the shops imported sprouts from the Netherlands.
For more information:
Christiaan Rijnhout
Roamler
M: +31 (0) 6 4241 7720
Westerdoksdijk 411
1013 AD Amsterdam
[email protected]
www.roamler.com