Key figures for the food sector in 2021-2022

Chloé R

3 years ago

Agriculture, food distribution and food consumption have changed significantly in recent years. The French have new expectations and do not have the same desires as before. They are turning to a healthier and more balanced diet. The digitalization of our society has also changed our habits and consumption patterns. Restaurateurs, distributors, food manufacturers, it is time to take into account all these new factors to adapt your marketing and communication.

Here are some key figures for the food sector in 2021-2022 to help you see things more clearly.

The French and gastronomy in figures: 2021-2022

Gastronomy is essential to the French art of living. It is part of our culture with its diversity and specialties.

90% of French people appreciate gastronomy.
69% find that today’s cuisine is more conducive to dining out than it used to be.
50% of millennials are interested in food.

Trend: towards healthier food in 2021-2022

The French are changing their eating habits. They eat less meat than before and more and more local and organic products. They are more interested in the environment and their health, as these figures show:

71% of French people eat organic food at least once a week.
14% of French people eat organic products every day.
81% of those surveyed during the containment period could consume French and local food.
25 to 30% of French people are flexitarians.
2.5% of French people are vegan or vegetarian, i.e. 1.7 million people.
10% imagine becoming vegetarian in the near future.

The food market, and more particularly the restaurant market, must adapt to these changes and to the new demands of consumers:

77% of French people would like to have more local, organic and homemade products on the menu.
37% of restaurants have organic food.
Local products account for an average of 46% of restaurant owners’ food purchases.

In gourmet restaurants, chefs pay particular attention to the quality of their products:

97% of chefs in gourmet restaurants buy local products.
86% pay attention to animal welfare when buying meat.
91% offer at least one vegetarian dish on the menu.

The retail sector is moving in the same direction. Food Service Vision, an expert on the out-of-home market, observes that retailers have a wider range of fresh, local and organic products. The increase in sales on this type of food has actually averaged 12.5% between 2016 and 2018.

The place of the web in the food sector in 2021-2022

Many entrepreneurs are creating and developing solutions to facilitate the production, logistics and distribution of companies in the food sector and to meet the new expectations of consumers. Foodtech is a growth market. 227 million of investments were recorded in 2018 in France, making it the leading investor country in Europe. They had almost doubled from 2017. Some figures from the food sector show how much the web and new digital solutions are impacting the gastronomy market.

Food and online booking in 2021-2022

Online booking and click and collect, in particular, are two digital methods that are becoming increasingly popular.

80% of French people decide on their restaurant thanks to information on the web.
69% of French people choose after consulting online reviews, including 80% of millennials.
50% of French people book their restaurant on the Internet.
47% of restaurants offer an online reservation service.
Click and collect has increased by 51% over the last two years.
33% of French people have already used click & collect.
13% of restaurateurs have integrated a click & collect system into their site.

2021-2022: the explosion of home deliveries

For those who don’t want to travel, there is delivery, which has become quite popular since the arrival of Covid-19. This system is a perfect fit with the lifestyle of city dwellers, who run around all week and don’t always have the time or inclination to cook in the evening. As proof, home deliveries are exploding and the arrival on the market of Deliveroo in 2015 has redistributed the cards.

3.3 billion euros is the value of the French home delivery market in 2019.
47% of French people have already had a meal delivered to their home.
20% of restaurant owners offered delivery in 2017.
30% increase in turnover for restaurants listed on Deliveroo in 2017.
39% of partner companies have had to recruit to cope with the increase in activity linked to Deliveroo.
⅔ of restaurant owners have increased their profitability through home delivery.

Some figures of the food sector on social networks in 2021-2022

70% of restaurants have an Instagram account and 80% communicate on networks in general.
250 million posts are published each month on Instagram with the #food.
1 billion monthly interactions are made on Facebook.
31% of respondents cook a dish after seeing it on Facebook.
40% of Facebook users view content around food and 28% share it, 38% and 27% on Instagram.
9.5 million images are pinned every day on Pinterest.
22 million tweets in 2017 were about food, which is one post every second and a half. 62% are issued by young people aged 18-34 and 28% by women aged 18-24.
Food is the 5th most watched topic on Youtube.
69% of millennials take pictures of their food and 50% of 18-24 year olds share them on networks.
1.5 million people use the Mapstr application.
59% of millennials compare food prices online and 39% write an online review of a brand or product.

Commercial catering in 2021-2022 and Covid-19

In 2018, the B.R.A Restaurant Trends magazine survey, accompanied by Food Service Vision, presented the figures for the commercial restaurant market. The overall turnover of the sector in France generated approximately 52 billion euros. But in 2020 with the coronavirus crisis, what about the gastronomy sector? Food Service Vision published a review in May to provide an update on the state of the commercial restaurant industry.

Commercial catering sales were down 88% in April, institutional catering sales were down 56% and food retailers were down 43%.
8.8 billion by the end of April.
28% of French people have eaten in restaurants, 71% of whom have had deliveries made, 50% have used takeaway sales and 14% have used the drive-through.

Food service Vision noted that activity had picked up in May. This summer, the French were able to get back to their social lives and therefore took advantage of the restaurants during their summer holidays. The new government measure imposing a curfew in many departments is a blow to the food sector. The food industry must continue to adapt its system and organize itself as quickly as possible with digital tools. Digital has become indispensable in the current state and will continue to bring profound changes to the industry.

If you would like to know more about the marketing strategies to adopt to enhance the value of your company or your establishment, our agency Alioze is specialized in food & culinary communication.

Read also our article on the
key figures for the food & culinary sector 2020 (in French)

See also:

Sources:

malou.io
digimind.com
- The Food universe on social networks in 30 figures
foodservicevision.com
food-market-vision.com
- Commercial catering, key figures and trends 2018 – FOOD Market Vision
zepros.com
- [Etude] Figures of the crisis (and after) by Food Service Vision

Credits: Stories