GfK: FMCG market reported an advance of almost 6%, influenced by the rise in prices | Progresiv
The consumer goods industry reported a 5.7% growth in 2018 compared to 2017, the rise being largely driven by inflation, according to data from the GfK consumer panel. According to Eurostat, rising food prices last year was of 4%. Thus, consumption was slightly increasing, but Romanians have not migrated to higher price segments. 
From the perspective of purchasing behavior, families in Romania went shopping as often compared to last year, instead the average paid for a purchase act increased by 6%.
Discount stores on the rise for household shopping
Throughout 2018, modern trade has become even more important for household goods purchases. These formats currently hold 62% of spending, almost 2 percentage points higher than in 2017.
Romanians left most of the money in hypermarkets, but they were visited less frequently for the purchase of household products. Instead, discount stores and supermarkets have increased their market share as a result of the larger sums left by families in these formats. Modern convenience stores also strengthened their household shopping position and managed to attract more buyers in 2018 than in 2017.
Dairy reported the highest growth
From the household shopping perspective, all segments of current consumer goods registered increases during 2018, influenced by larger shopping baskets purchased on a transaction. The most accelerated evolution was among the dairy products, a category for which Romanians spent 9% more. And the household care products sector has grown significantly (+7%), while personal care products have evolved at the same pace as the market. Regarding food products, both packaged and fresh have had a dynamics of about 6% in value. For the beverages segment (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), we see a modest increase of 4%.
