The trend was negative (-1.0%), presented by organized food retail, as a whole, for the month of December 2021 compared to the corresponding last year, a month of particular importance for the industry, as more than 10% of annual turnover takes place during this month.

According to the NielsenIQ report, the growth rate for fast-moving consumer products was even more strongly negative, at -2.4%, which is mainly due to the more modest aggregate demand for the Food and Beverage category (- 2.9% in value).

In fact, in all the weeks of December, the fast moving consumer goods FMCGs recorded a negative trend, with the exception of the last week (27 / 12-02 / 01), in which there was an increase in sales of + 5.1%, compared to the corresponding period last year ( 28 / 12-03 / 01), however this is mainly justified by the fact that this week had an extra day of operation for food stores.

As for the other major categories, as defined by NielsenIQ, Bazaar products recorded the highest growth rate at + 14.9%, while only in the last week of December sales growth reached 39.9%. On the contrary, fresh and products in bulk showed a negative trend, at -0.9% for the whole month.

At the level of sub-categories, pasta stood out, which in the last month of the year showed a double-digit growth rate of + 19.5%, more than double what they recorded for the whole year, while the very good performance of the Tea & Infusions category during this month at + 9.8% managed to hold back the negatively moving annual course of the category (-1.1%).

Finally, as expected, the sales of some categories of personal hygiene and care, such as hair dyes or cosmetics plunged by -20.8% and -35.9% respectively, as in December this year the restrictive measures of 2020 did not apply.

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