Fruit juice market 2020 with ups and downs - VdF publishes first market figures for the previous year
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The members of the Verband der deutschen Fruchtsaft-Industrie e. V. (VdF) ((Association of the German Fruit Juice Industry) look back on a turbulent 2020, not only due to the pandemic. After very changeable and dry weather, the apple pressing season ended with only around 400 million liters, significantly lower than forecast. The industry was only able to partially compensate for high sales losses in the catering trade, which was closed for months due to the Corona regulations, with higher consumer demand in the retail trade. In terms of per capita consumption, this resulted in a decline of 0.5 liters to 30 liters for fruit juice and fruit nectar compared to the previous year. VdF Managing Director Klaus Heitlinger adds: "We are observing a continuation of the trend towards high-quality direct juices in the retail sector, with the result that the industry as a whole was able to record an increase in the value of juices sold of around 13 percent. The development in the returnable glass segment is also positive. Here, growth of 16 percent is emerging."
Turbulent 2020
In the first lockdown of 2020, consumers increasingly turned to fruit juice. In the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 10 percent was even noted. Although this positive consumer trend in the grocery trade continued at a somewhat lower level during the year, it could only partially compensate for the industry's high sales losses in the food service sector. The development in the direct juices segment was encouraging. Chilled direct juices are up 11.4 percent, with non-chilled growing by 5.3 percent. Among consumers' favorite varieties, orange juice is extending its leading position. Its share of the total market is now 34.5 percent, followed by apple juice at 27.8 percent and multivitamin at 14.2 percent. The trend towards returnable glass containers is also encouraging for the industry. With the 16 percent increase, the association's own VdF returnable glass containers now account for around 13 percent of the total market.
Apple juice pressing season 2020: significantly lower than expected
Of the 400 million liters of apple juice pressed last year, around 350 million liters were conventional and 51 million liters organic. Although this is a very pleasing figure compared with the previous year, harvest expectations in July 2020 were still around 850,000 metric tons, which meant that a significantly higher pressing volume was expected. Once again, the weather played a significant role. The insufficient water supply in August and September reduced the growth of the apples. A factor that should not be underestimated, every missing centimeter in the diameter of the apples costs around 30 percent in juice volume. Unfortunately, the frost and drought stress years of 2017 to 2019 also affected many old orchard trees to the point that they broke apart or died. The overaging of orchard trees continues unabated here.
