China Now World's Biggest Grocery Market - IGD

China is now the world's largest market for food and grocery retail, surpassing the US, according to recent research published by IGD. The Chinese grocery sector was worth £607 billion ($972 billion) by the end of 2011 while the US market was valued at £527 billion for the same period.  The IDG research forecasts that Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) will be the top grocery markets by the year 2015 – IGD forecasts that Chinese market will be worth £918 billion compared to a US value of £675 billion by 2015. "China's grocery growth story is phenomenal. Between 2006 and 2015, the Chinese grocery market is forecast to triple in value and to be worth nearly a trillion pounds," said Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive of IGD. "This rapid expansion has been fuelled by three main factors: rapid economic growth, population and rising food inflation."    IGD believes that companies will be looking to the BRICs nations as the size of their markets grows,. "Many UK food and grocery companies are already pursuing this opportunity," said Ms Denney-Finch. (4 Mar)    © 2012 ESM: European Supermarket Magazine