The health crisis has had a hard impact on consumption habits in France. At first, many consumers have stocked up on grocery products such as pasta, rice, canned fish, and tomatoes. Many others started preparing some typical Italian food, such as pizza, and bread at home. There was also a strong trend towards replacing fresh products with frozen foods and an increasing interest in organic products. Sales in the large-scale retail trade benefited from this, especially home delivery and click & collect formats. Online sales of food products in 2020 reached a share of total sales of 7.8%, with peaks during confinements, compared to a 5.8% share in 2019. This trend is continuing into 2021.
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In this context, France confirmed its position as one of the world’s leading food-exporting countries with about 61.9 billion euros of turnover developed abroad. In 2020 the country slowed its pace marking a decline of -3.45% compared to 2019.
THE ROLE OF ITALIAN PRODUCTS
Italy is the fifth supplier of France that imports agri-food products mainly from Spain (fruit, vegetables, edible meat), Belgium (vegetable preparations, cereal preparations, beverages, alcoholic liquids), and Germany (milk and derivatives, cereal preparations, edible meat). The balance of trade shows a sharp decline of 19.51% due to the impact of the Covid pandemic on the exports of French agri-food products.
French food exports to Italy dropped by about -7.5% last year as imports of Italian products grew by about +3.22%. The trade balance is always in favor of France, but with a drastic drop of -38/-34% compared to 2019. All this shows that, despite the pandemic, Italian food products consolidated their presence on the French market, even increasing sales.
EXPORTS’ CHAMPIONS
Which products are driving the growth of Italian exports to the French market? Pasta is undoubtedly a standard-bearer: it is increasingly present in the dishes of the French, who consume about 8 kilos of it every year. Italy is confirmed as the first supplier country with a 55.6% market share, for a value of 383 million euros, soaring by +6.2% compared to 2019.
In 2020, as in previous years, Italy also confirmed as the first country of origin of imported vinegar (59% market share and a total value of 26.8 million euros), up more than +20% compared to 2019. Italy is also France’s top supplier of cheese and dairy products (33.1% market share for a value that exceeds 506 million euros in 2020, up +8% compared to 2019). Fresh cheeses such as mozzarella top the ranking. As for these cheeses, Italy reaches a 42.4% share for a value of 256 million euros.
Italy maintains its supremacy even in the canned tomatoes sector (over 60% share and 135.6 million euros of exports, up +9.9% compared to 2019).
The trade balance data updated to the first quarter of 2021 are showing a positive trend for Italy. Imports from France dropped by -8.9%, while Italian food exports to France grew by +1%. The main imported categories in this period are cereal-based preparations (-0.41% compared to the first half of 2020) and dairy (+5.21).
The Italian Trade Agency will organize a collective of Italian companies to attend trade shows such as Gourmet, which will take place from 12 to 13 September 2021, Sirha (23 to 27 September), and Natexpo (24 to 26 October).