Consumers are trading down as the price of food increases with inflation, Bord Bia's Lorcan Burke told the CAFRE/UAS/UFU conference on Tuesday, 31 January at CAFRE’s Greenmount Campus.

A survey of consumers showed that from March 2022 to October 2022, the number of consumers who stated they were comfortable in their spends dropped from 33% to 20% and the number which said they were struggling jumped from 23% to 32%.

He outlined that during times of high prices, consumers tend to move to scratch cooking and batch cooking, which brings opportunities for products such as potatoes.

It has also been found that where potato sales increase, so too do sales of root vegetables and brassicas.

Sales

Potato sales in supermarkets have increased significantly. In 2019, 209,179t were sold, while this figure peaked at 243,017t in 2021 and dropped to 219,078t in 2022.

However, the Bord Bia market specialist noted that some consumers were switching to smaller bag sizes of 2.5kg, as the price of a 7.5kg bag of potatoes stands out on their shopping list.

Burke added that 30% of consumers were in some way trying to increase their intake of plant-based food and that local and natural products were important to sustainably focused shoppers.