More than a quarter of food products sold in supermarkets and hypermarkets in Italy feature Italian-origin labelling, a new study has found.
According to the third edition of the Immagino Nielsen GS1 Italy Observatory, out of the 60,600 SKUs analysed, 15,300 highlight their Italian origin on the label, reports Italian news agency Ansa.
The terms used include '100% italiano', 'Made in Italy' and 'solo ingredienti italiani'.
Sales of food products that feature an Italian origin on the label grew by 4.5% in 2017, which was 2.3% higher than the figures for 2016.
These products' sales value surpassed €6.3 billion, which was around €274 million higher than 2016. This was achieved without promotional activity for new products.
Cheese and salamis were the driving force behind the growth, along with DOC and DOCG wines and sparkling wines. DOP and IGP products also contributed to this growth.
Popular Packaging Elements
The most-used element for packaging was the Italian flag. It was found on 14.3% of the products analysed.
The flag was found to be popular with older consumers and families with children.
Trentino-Alto Adige emerged as the most-valued region for food packaging, both in terms of the number of products (672, amounting to 1.1% of the total) and the value of sales (€241 million), representing an annual growth of 4.8%.
Products that claimed to be '100% Italian' saw the highest growth in 2017 (excluding European geographical indications), with sales jumping 7.8%, especially for cheese, poultry and milk products.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
