The most wanted fresh foods in Europe? Not fruit or vegetables, meat or fish, but dairy products. Such trend is revealed by Assolatte, commenting on the results of a report made by the international research company, Iri, which monitored the performance of the 10 principal macro-categories of the fresh food sector in six main European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Spain). This study highlights how cheese, yoghurt, milk, butter and other dairy products account for 44% of the total fresh products bought by the Germans, French, Italian, British, Dutch and Spanish in sales outlets across the retail sector. Milk and milk-based products are not just “best sellers” among fresh products but they are becoming more and more appreciated by European consumers and sales of them are in fact increasing, says Assolatte. So much so that in Iri’s 5 European top winners four of them were dairy-based products. Cheese is the best “performer” of the year and it saw sales increase by 3.4%, amounting to a total turnover of 20.8 billion Euros. Sales of cheese are growing in all of the six countries analysed in the study, with the exception of Spain and Italy. It is the fresh Italian cheeses, considered typical of the Mediterranean diet, in particular mozzarella, which are driving the sector forward. In second place of the “best performing” fresh products we find butter and other spreads, which have increased by 3.3% reaching a share of 6.4 billion Euros. In third position, for its increase in sales, is cream (2.1 billion Euros total) and in fifth place, behind ready meals in fourth, is fresh milk (5.7 billion Euros total). Above all, leading the sales of fresh produce are Germany and France (+2.5% and +1.8% respectively) and together the two countries represent more than 50% of the whole European market for these foods. Germany and France are also two of the main export markets of Italian cheeses, which, as Assolatte records, have already exceeded exports of 300,000 tons at a value of more than 2 billion Euros. According to estimates by Assolatte, France and Germany absorb a third of all Italian cheese sold abroad. Although both historic markets for Italian dairy export, they are continuing to expand thanks to the commitment and energy of Italian dairy companies. The analyses made by Assolatte on data from Istat show that in the first nine months of 2014 the export of Italian cheese to France grew by 4.6% in volume and by 6.9% in value with respect to the same period in 2013. There was also a growth in the export of Italian cheese to Germany in the first nine months of 2014 recorded: from data processed by Assolatte it emerged that quantity increased by 6.5% and value by 5.5% with respect to the period of January-September, 2013.