Australians buying less but paying more for grapes

Nearly 76% of Australian households purchased grapes in the year to June 11, down from 80.1% for the year prior.

Nielsen Homescan Australia figures also show that in terms of value, grape sales in Australia grew 4.17% over the same period, however, they slumped 18.1% in volume.

Nielsen said that out of white (green), red and black grapes, white grapes have the highest penetration, with 67.9% of Australian households purchasing them in the twelve months to June 11, compared to 73.1% the year prior. The spend on white grapes increased 9.1% but the volume sold at retail dropped 15.6%.

Over the same period, two in every five Australian households purchased red grapes and nearly a quarter bought black grapes.

Both the value and volume of red grapes declined, by 8% and 26.4% respectively, while for black grapes, the value was up 3.85% but the volume down 15.9%.

While Coles accounted for a 33.0% share of Australia’s grapes sales, closely followed by rival Woolworths with a 32.5% value share, Nielsen said greengrocers continue to be an important channel in the Australian market. ‘Non-supermarkets’ accounted for a 16.9% share of grape sales over the 12 month period, making for a larger share than the combined shares of both ALDI and IGA, it said.