The Federal Association of the German Food Industry (BVE) has released new data that reveals that the country's food industry was greatly hampered by lockdown restrictions in the second and third quarter of last year.
In the second quarter of 2020, the German food industry reported a decline in sales of 4.6%, the data showed.
Domestic business and exports declined in this period, with exports falling significantly. The lockdown in spring 2020 also had a hugely detrimental effect on food production, which was reduced by 5.7% in the second quarter of 2020 when adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects.
The third quarter followed a similar pattern, but with less of a steep decline in sales, of 0.9%. On a more positive note, once the lockdown ended in spring, production output in the food industry recovered in the third quarter, growing by 3%.
Export Performance
Overall, the industry generated around €31 billion in domestic markets during the second and third quarters, with a small rise of 0.6% compared to 2019 due to price stagnation.
Export business declined heavily, however, as the industry generated €15.1 billion abroad, a drop of 4.7% on the previous year.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Conor Farrelly. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
