Spaniards shop less often but spend more and swap meat for fruit and veg

Kantar Worldpanel's research, carried out for German chain Aldi, found that consumers in Spain are tending to buy more fruit and vegetables, less meat, and although they do not go grocery shopping so often, are spending and buying more on their less-frequent trips.

The gradual leaning towards vegetables and fruit and away from meat, and larger shops more spaced apart, was seen over the first six months of this year compared with consumer habits in the last few years, but is unlikely to be entirely due to lockdown, since a follow-up study has seen a similar tendency over July, August and September.

According to Aldi's research and analytics director Ignacio Cid, purchases of fresh produce rose by 9% between January and June inclusive.

Compared with the same period in 2019, the fresh produce which shifted the fastest was eggs, with sales of these shooting up by 23%, followed by vegetables, with 18% more sold, and fruit, increasing by 12%.

Overall, in the last five years, fruit and vegetable consumption has risen by 7% and 13% respectively, according to the study.

Protein from animal sources – fresh meat, sausages, cheese, fresh fish and seafood – went down in that time by 2.5%.

Whilst these trends were already gaining ground slowly since 2015, lockdown was what accelerated the change in habits – and also the amount spent per shop.

A combination of fresh produce, fruit and vegetables costing more than processed foodstuffs, together with eating at home rather than in restaurants, means the average household now spends €2,069 a year on fresh goods, compared with €1,921 a year in 2019.

The study also found consumption of fresh produce increased with age: Two-thirds of these goods are bought by shoppers aged 50 and over.

For the over-65s, just over half – 51% - of their food shopping bill involved fresh produce, compared with 38% of the amount spent in the case of the under-35s.

The latter group spent more on fresh meat than shoppers aged 35 and over.

Meat continues to account for the highest expenditure in terms of fresh goods – 26% of the total – followed by fruit, at 18%, and vegetables, at 16%.

Aldi was also keen to see when the most fresh produce was consumed – lunchtimes and evening dinners, naturally, accounted for the largest amounts eaten, and made up three in four of these meals, although a small but significant increase was seen in consumption of fresh foodstuffs for breakfast, from 14% in 2018 to 17% in 2019.

Ignacio Cid says this seems to be in line with the trend, seen across Europe, in eating more fruit in general.

In the last decade, fresh produce bought in supermarkets and hypermarkets in Spain has gone up by 11 percentage points, from 50% in 2010 to 61% in 2019, but fewer shopping trips are now made – as at the third quarter of 2020, the average consumer went grocery shopping 30 times a year fewer than in 2010.

Asked why they bought their fresh goods in supermarkets specifically, 71% said these stores were the most convenient, close by and accessible, whilst 55% said the prices were better than in other establishments, 51% did so to keep an eye on special offers – last thing on a Saturday or the final hour before closing the night before a bank holiday is always a good time to catch these, as stores are keen to sell off anything that will not keep until the next working day, meaning they frequently slash their prices by anything from 50% to 80% - and another 45% of those interviewed said supermarkets 'had everything under one roof', allowing them to buy their fresh, processed and non-food products in one basket, which they could not do at local markets or greengrocers'.

The above photograph, taken by Aldi, shows the inside of one of its stores in Reus, Tarragona province.