Paradox: Romanians buy more premium products than other Europeans, but are looking for food promotions
The behavior of European consumers will determine the operators in the food industry to make strategy changes, since almost half of the citizens are very attentive to prices, wanting to save.
Romanians hunt food promotions. Freepik photo
A survey conducted by McKinsey consulting giant in Europe shows that customer preferences are changing this year when it comes to how customers shop.
This year, almost half (48%) of European interviewed consumers said they were looking for ways to save money when shopping. The most attentive price are the Norwegians, followed by those in the United Kingdom and, in the same position, Romanians, Danes and Spaniards. However, of all the analyzed countries, Romanians are the first place when it comes to the active search for promotions, followed by Spaniards and Danish. Also, Romanian buyers are the ones who are looking for the most to buy products from local producers and farmers, followed by French, Spanish and Polish buyers.
Romanian consumers dominate the ranking and when it comes to buying high quality or premium products, followed by Spaniards. Romanians are also close to the first places when it comes to buying organic products and are willing to pay higher prices for healthier products, but they are below the European average when it comes to buying the store's own brands instead of known brands. Also, Romanian buyers are well above the European average when it comes to buying food from the food departments inside the store.
“In fact, these are some of the trends that shape the European food industry this year, according to McKinsey. The intention to look for more ways to save money remains high, while consumers seek to buy high quality products and we see a slight increase in the intention to buy health. Not in the last places of the survey ”, Points the analyst Etoro Bogdan Maioreanu.
Romanians, more attentive to prices due to inflation
The increased attention of buyers is justified by the latest inflation data in Romania, which shows that in March the prices of food products increased by 5.1% compared to last year. The champions of the price increases were margarine with almost 13%, fruits and canned fruit by over 10%. Meat and meat products increased by almost 4% from year to year.
The commercial war between the US and China could push Chinese companies to find other ways to cover the needs that the US imports can no longer meet. In 2023, China imported from the US fruits and nuts worth nearly $ 1 billion, meat and meat products worth over 3.4 billion. Now he could look for other suppliers, and this will put pressure on prices, including in Europe. China was the third main destination of EU agricultural products exports in 2024 (6% of EU exports), after the United Kingdom and the US.
However, EU exports to China registered the highest discount, with a decrease of 1.3 billion euros (-9%) compared to 2023. The main exports that decreased were cereals, pork, spirits and dairy products. But the current situation could lead to an increase in the demand for agricultural products in China to replace what cannot be purchased today from the US. This is why the reshaping of supply chains around the world could put pressure on some markets and could make prices rise for several categories of food.
Investors closely follow the situation. According to the latest Etoro Retail Investor Beat, when it comes to the main external risks they see for their portfolios, 26% of Romanian investors mentioned a global recession, 23% inflation, 18% of the Romanian economy and 16% a global conflict. “I.The current commercial war initiated by the Trump administration has all the ingredients to tick at least some of these concerns”, Says Etoro analyst.
