The latest data from TNS Worldpanel for the United Kingdom in the 52 weeks ending 25th January 2009 shows the UK retail market for frozen food increased in value by 6.7% year on year.
The market has now shown 10 consecutive quarters of accelerating growth and enjoys value growth for all nine product sectors that TNS Worldpanel monitor.
There are now two product categories in double-digit growth and four categories growing at greater than 6% per annum.
Frozen potato products are enjoying an annual (value) growth rate of 6.3% with the market now being worth in excess of £500 million. Volume growth for frozen potato productswas 5%
Frozen savoury food, which includes cooked poultry, processed poultry, savoury bakery and others is now growing at 10.3% year on year in value terms and is showing volume growth of 6.6%.
The frozen vegetable market has increased its growth rate to 10.1% year on year, a huge acceleration from just under 2% 18 months ago.
The increased level of consumer interest in frozen foods in general, the increased publicity on the amount of food that’s wasted and the many campaigns highlighting the locked in nutritional goodness of frozen foods have all helped this category to storm ahead.
The frozen fish market is worth just under £700 million and has grown from under £600 million in only 18 months. Frozen meat and poultry is now growing at 7.6% per annum, whilst frozen pizzas continue to perform exceptionally well at 7.0% year on year growth.
The British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) sees no reason why the accelerating growth of the frozen food market should not continue.
Consumers are turning to frozen food as households battle with diminishing household budgets, consumers increasingly are reluctant to waste any food, yet still want to provide nutritionally balanced meals for their families and frozen food, as we all know, ticks all the boxes.
