The European Potato Chips Market Retains Growth Despite the Pandemic

IndexBox has just published a new report: 'EU - Potato Chips - Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends, and Insights.' Here is a summary of the report's key findings.

Potato chips constitute a very widely known and popular product in the EU. The market size is estimated at $4.5B (this figure refers to producers and importers' revenues, excl. retail margins), which equated to approx. 1.9M tonnes. The countries with the highest volumes of potato chip consumption are Germany (487K tonnes), Italy (249K tonnes), and France (246K tonnes), with a combined 53% share of total consumption. The Netherlands, the UK, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Romania, Poland, and Finland lagged somewhat behind, accounting for a further 38%.

In value terms, Germany ($996M), the UK ($689M), and France ($431M) were the countries with the highest levels of market value, with a combined 47% share of the total market (IndexBox estimates).

These same countries feature among the key importers of chips. France ($245M), Germany ($197M), and the Netherlands ($165M) constitute the markets with the highest levels of imports, together comprising 45% of EU imports. The UK, Ireland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Poland, and Portugal lagged somewhat behind, holding a further 38%.

The countries with the highest levels of potato chips annual per capita consumption include the Netherlands (11 kg per person), Sweden (7 kg per person), and Germany (6 kg per person).

During the COVID-19 pandemic and the related lockdown, consumers tend to visit shops and malls less often and stock up on purchases for future use. However, Europeans did not reduce their consumption of potato chips tangibly. 

This is confirmed by the fact that the production of chips in the largest EU countries quickly recovered after a short-term drop caused by the pandemic. In April-May 2020, there was indeed a decline in the production of potato chips against the lockdown background, but the fall's depth differs from country to country. In France, over April-May 2020, there was a strong decline in production volumes, while in Germany, after a slight reduction in April, production started to recover immediately in May. Afterward, the production fluctuated within its common seasonal trend pattern.

Based on 2020 data, the potato chips market is less affected by the pandemic than many other food industries. The market shows resistance to the crisis due to the stability of consumer demand for this product, meaning the market is expected to remain solid in the medium term. 

Driven by increasing demand for potato chips in the European Union, the market is expected to continue an upward consumption trend over the next decade. Market performance is forecast to retain its current trend pattern, expanding with an anticipated CAGR of +0.6% for the period from 2019 to 2030, projected to bring the market volume to 2M tonnes by the end of 2030.

Source: IndexBox Platform