COUNTING FOOD SPENDING COSTS TO THE DIME AND ACQUISITIONS MADE BASED ON TRADITION AND LOCAL GOODS: WHAT ITALIANS ARE EATING DURING THE CRHISTMAS AND NEW YEAR HOLIDAYS ACCORDING TO A CIA SURVEY

There will be a consistent decrease in the acquisition of the most classic products like fruit and vegetables, meat, cheese, and all varieties of sweets during the holiday season, and though the traditional toast with a nice sparkling wine may not be renounced, other “high end” foods like salmon, oysters, caviar, and exotic fruits that usually enrich Italy’s dinner tables at Christmas will be severely limited this year. The winter holidays will be made up of strictly traditional Italian foods this year. These were the results of a survey recently conducted by CIA (Italian Agricultural Confederation) on Italian eating habits for the 2008 winter holidays.

It will be a “lean” holiday season for Italians in general. The economic crisis and the overall increase in prices will mean that barely over 6 billion euros will be spent, thus a quantitative decrease of between 3.5 and 5% compared to spending in 2007. An austerity at mealtime that CIA notes, however, had already begun in 2007 during which spending dropped significantly from that of 2006. This year has also registered an increase in families who shop at “hard discount” markets (from 9.7% in 2007 to the current 10.2%). Supermarkets remain the favorite food shopping point for Italians (57.2%), followed by smaller traditional shops (21%), local markets and fairs (10%), and, lastly, the internet (1.6%).

For meats and cold cuts a 1.8% decrease in acquisitions is predicted, even though chicken, turkey, cotechino and zampone will be taking the place of ostriches, caviar and salmon (acquisitions of these “luxury” items are predicted to fall by 25-30%). Even cheeses will be feeling the cold, with acquisitions falling slightly by 0.7%.
Pasta will also fall by 1.3% while bread should instead register an increase of 0.5%. Though the traditional sweets of the season like panettone, torrone, and pandoro will see a substantial decrease of 2-3%, more space will be given to more local sweets as well as those that are made at home. Fruits and vegetables should register a decrease of about 4.5%, about the same as that in 2007.
And even nuts and dried fruit will decline by 1.5%, as well as legumes (-2%). Exotic fruits mark the highest decrease at -20%. Wines, however, especially reds and sparkling wines, are expected to register and increase of 1.5% and 2% respectively.

The total decrease in acquisitions should be around -2.5%. On the other hand, more attention will be given to those products that are connected to the territory and which can be acquired at local markets and fairs that are always held by farmers and artisans during the holidays and which often offer savings of between 10 and 15%.



What Italians Are Buying for the Winter Holidays

Fresh and dried fruit, vegetables, legumes, potatoes: 980 million euros

Wine and Spumante: 1,060 million euros

Olive Oil and Condiments: 240 million euros

Cheese, cold cuts, eggs: 1,190 million euros

Meat and Fish: 1,330 million euros

Bread, Pasta, and Rice: 520 million euros

Sweets: 590 million euros

Other: 120 million

Total: 6,030 million euros