February 6 2008, 09:11

Fresh cut and ready-to-eat vegetables and fruits are EU best sellers

Having analyzed the trends in fruit & vegetable retail of European Union, the analysts of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" inform that the sales of ready-to-eat products is the most profitable segment for the supermarkets at the present moment. Such products are fresh cut salads, washed cut-up fruits and vegetables, cooked vegetable courses, and also combinations of vegetable and meat courses - for the consumer to just heat them in microwave oven.

The margin of common fruits and vegetables often decline down to 3-7% in the leading supermarket chains of European Union; at the same time, ready-to-eat products are well sold with the margin up to 25-35%. Anticipating this trend, the increasing number of large fruit and vegetable producers (or the producers' cooperatives) in EU install the lines for fruit & vegetable cutting and packing. This way they significantly increase the feasibility of such business by means of the relatively low expenses.

To the opinion of Andriy Yarmak, the head of "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" project, the segment of fresh cut vegetables is extending quite dynamically in Ukraine too. However, this segment is still of low importance in the general structure of the sales performed by fruit & vegetable sections of the supermarkets, where traditional fruits and vegetables dominate. The segment of ready-to-eat meat courses (which formulations often include vegetables now) is increasing dynamically enough. This is the indication of more dynamic development of fresh cut fruit & vegetable sector in future.