Greenyard: people eat less fruit and veg

Fruit and vegetable processor Greenyard hopes that political initiatives to make people eat healthier, like a Belgian proposal to abolish VAT on fresh produce, will help in these difficult times. While Greenyard’s sales rose in the past six months, European market volume is dropping.

More frozen foods

Consumers are eating fresh fruit and vegetables less often, due to all this political and economic turmoil, Greenyard states in its most recent financial results publication. Still, the Belgian food giant managed to beat the market average with a 7.3 % rise in sales (on a comparable base) to 2.27 billion euros. Frozen foods saw an actual volume rise, for fresh food products growth only came courtesy of positive price effects.

At 80.4 million euros, the group’s AEBITDA is slightly lower than last year’s. Still, Greenyard is quite relieved to see that lower market volumes, a higher inflation and higher costs for energy, labour and transport had the potential to seriously damage the half-year results.

Co-CEO Marc Zwaaneveld hopes that demand will be restored sooner rather than later. His colleague, co-CEO Hein Deprez, adds that current consumption is way below minimal WHO recommendations (at 400g per day). “Now is the time to make full use of the benefits of fruits and vegetables. Some governments are developing policies that stress the essential role of this most healthy and sustainable of food categories”, he adds. “Our sector was one of the first to suffer from the consequences of this current situation, but will also be one of the first to be revived as governments stimulate healthier foods again.”