Pasta in Greece sales and trends

4 September 2013 Off By Pastaria

by Euromonitor International

The economic crisis does not seem to be curbing pasta sales in Greece. The outlook is good, especially for wholemeal pasta and flavoured pasta.

Pasta’s flavour and high nutritional value, combined with its affordability, makes pasta an attractive choice for Greek families. According to Euromonitor International, pasta retail volume sales increased by 2% in 2012 despite the economic recession. Low prices and strong consumer preferences are the driving force behind the increase in volume sales.

Wholegrain pasta is expected to continue to see good growth. A rapid-growing category is flavoured pasta; flavoured varieties contain mostly premium types of pasta that have been prepared with the use of natural colour and taste derivatives such as tomato, mushroom, garlic and spinach.

Chilled/fresh pasta was a promising category before the financial crisis. However, the high price of the product has made it less popular in Greece. Nonetheless, small grocery retailers continue to stock the product, and chilled/fresh pasta in Greece is mainly sold as private label with Alfa-Beta Vassilopoulos, the second biggest grocery retailer to hold 72% market share.

Pasta is an accessible product as it can be found both in small grocery retailers and in larger shops. The main channel is supermarkets, which accounted for 69% of value sales in 2012. This happens because independent small grocers are located in neighbourhoods across all the large cities of Greece, but also in villages where supermarkets are not so present. With such a large coverage of the country, independent small grocers traditionally cover a reasonable proportion of sales.

Two companies dominate sales of the products. Misko, part of Barilla Holding, was the leading manufacturer in 2012 with 33% of value sales, while A Kikizas Melissa is second in terms of ranking with a 18% share, according to Euromonitor International.

Without doubt, private label is seeing the fastest growth within pasta, and its value share is expected to increase slightly to 20% in 2012.

Euromonitor predicts that wholegrain pasta, which is still at a relatively low penetration level, will perform well in the next five years, despite the economic crisis. An increasing number of nutritionists on TV have indicated the benefits of this type of food and the health and wellness trend is always more important in Greece even though it still cannot be compared to the rest of Western Europe.

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