(Finance) – Hand in hand with the growing affirmation of health and environmental sustainability among the drivers of choice for Italians, organic food is also finding more and more space on the menus of public establishments. reveals it aISMEA survey carried out in collaboration with FIPE and AssoBio and presented today at theevent “Organic in commercial catering”. In the last year, the survey shows, over 50% of Italian bars and almost 70% of restaurants have in fact proposed or used organic foods, drinks and raw materials in their culinary preparations, on various consumption occasions, from breakfast to aperitifs with main meals, in order to guarantee its customers a wider choice, serve healthier food and qualify its offer.
The survey was conducted in September and October 2022 at a representative sample of national bars and restaurants and collected over 2,000 telephone interviews. In more detail, of the approximately 111,000 bars active in Italy, one out of two has partially oriented its offer towards references obtained with biological methodwith a higher incidence in stores located in city in central and northern Italy and with a number of employees higher than 6. On average almost the 20% of food and drinks offered at these establishments is made up of organic products, with a greater representativeness as regards fruit, milk and wine. There breakfast and theaperitif have been indicated by the operators as the most suitable consumption occasions for the inclusion of organic proposals, while on the price front, the organic product is sold at almost 15% more compared to its conventional counterpart, due to higher procurement costs.
From the side catering, the data are even more comforting by confirming ahigh penetration of organic products who find employment in as many as two thirds of the over 157,000 restaurants active on the Italian scene. Even higher percentages are found in Central Italy (over 76%) and in the North West (69%), with a progressive increase in the incidence as the number of employees increases (from 60% in restaurants with only one employee to 81% of those with more than 49 employees). Within these exercises, organic represents over 30% of the value of purchases, with peaks of 42% in the case of vegetables and 34% of extra virgin olive oil. Also in this case the organic product generates a surcharge of almost 17%, always justified by a surplus in costs. Side dishes and appetizers these are the dishes in which the presence of organic products manages to be more significant, but in general, the restaurateurs interviewed reveal, organic can be used in the best way in almost all courses. In relation to the prospects in the near future, over 80% of the restaurants and almost all of the bars interviewed state that they intend to confirm the current policy of purchasing organic products, in quantitative terms. Among the former, however, 13.5% could consider the choice of becoming an exclusively organic establishment, a figure which in the case of bars is reduced to 6%.
L’event, organized by FIPE-Confcommercio, ISMEA and AssoBiohad the goal of outlining the scenarios in the Horeca channel, for the organic sector, starting from the new values that guide consumption choices: sustainability, environment, ethics and fair remuneration along the supply chain. But also to make the fundamental role of organic agriculture recognizable in highly topical areas such as food safety, healthy eating, environmental sustainability and the fight against climate change.
“Our analysis activity is always focused on capturing the main trends in food consumption and catering – he said Luciano Sbraga, director of the FIPE-Confcommercio Study Centre –. Attention to organic productions is proof of how consumers today are increasingly aware of the need to combine their own well-being and health with the well-being and health of the planet by respecting the territory, seasonality, quality and safety. All values promoted by FIPE with the Catering Manifesto presented and signed on 28 April on the occasion of Catering Day”.
“We are very satisfied with this result. We thank ISMEA for investing in this study and FIPE for the precious collaboration provided – he commented Roberto Zanoni, president of AssoBio –. The work we are presenting analyzes an important sector in depth, both from an economic and cultural point of view, and demonstrates how much organic consumption is establishing itself in channels such as bars, restaurants, hotels, testifying to the ever-increasing attention from consumers towards products that safeguard the environment, health and well-being. We hope that this research can be constantly updated over time to monitor a rapidly expanding sales channel and market”.
“ISMEA has been detecting and analyzing for years the main dynamics of domestic food purchases by Italians, with reference to both conventional products and the organic segment – he commented Fabio Del Bravo, head of the ISMEA Rural Development Services Department –. For the first time this qualitative survey, made possible thanks to the collaboration with Fipe-Confcommercio, has given us the opportunity to broaden our gaze also to away from home, an extremely interesting line of investigation, which we hope to be able to further explore with periodic analyzes . In a context that sees a physiological slowdown in the growth of organic food consumption at home, after the significant rates of increase to which organic products had accustomed us for years, the monitoring of Horeca, even on aspects of a purely qualitative nature, can in fact, provide valuable elements to guide the choices of politics and the supply chain”.