Climate, environment and sustainability are the keywords of 2020, according to the year-end survey by Coop-Nomisma and the Coop report. A snapshot of Italian consumers' expectations at the dawn of the new decade.
The desire for change
The Italians interviewed by Nomisma express the desire for change. Change job, city or country, retire. But also live – and consume – better. Namely:
– use less plastic (65% of respondents). A topic impossible to avoid, due to the now evident aggression of microplastics in the environment, and even in our diet,
– waste less (64%). A topic talked about for many years now, without achieving tangible results,
– consume more traditional foods (30%) and less junk food.
2020 food between health consciousness and tradition
Domestic food consumption, as anticipated, continue to grow (+12%). Even if with greater recourse to egrocery e meal delivery.
Tradition and naturalness are the characteristics of foods to which 30% of Italians declare they want to devote more resources. 22% of respondents expect that the use of fast food will decrease, as will consumption of red meat and ready meals. Greater interest in whole products, 'alternative' cereals, white meats and legumes, preferably organic. Ethnic, vegan products seem instead stalled, gluten free e lactose free.
2020 rosy for mass retail
For modern distribution 2020 looks to be a positive year, with growth forecasts of 1.4%, thanks to the trend reversal in the South (+0.9% compared to -0.6% in 2018) and the return to positive sales for fresh products sold by variable weight (+1.6%, after a sharp slowdown of over 3 points recorded in 2018).
The channel ecommerce – which already, in 2019, recorded significant growth (+26%, with a 2.5% share of the total grocery ) – will continue the climb. With an estimated growth of 30% for 2020.
The retail physical should in turn expand the sales network, following the 2019 trend. The expansion, expressed in square meters, is expected to be 3.5% for the discount, 0.5% for supermarkets.
Professional journalist since January 1995, she has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and magazines (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). Author of investigative reports on food, she published the book 'Reading labels to know what we eat'.
