Food Marketing in West Germany: Developments, Prospects for 1980, Significance for U.S. Exports

摘要

West Germany's food industry is expanding and modernizing rapidly. To increase or retain their share of the German market, U.S. firms must use the same merchandising efforts in marketing food as they use in the United States. Germany's food market may grow 23 percent from 1970 to 1980. Sales of processed foods are rising about twice as fast as total food expenditures, while sales of convenience foods and numbers of meals eaten away from home are increasing even more rapidly. The increasingly affluent Germans are not only upgrading their diets, but also are buying autos and refrigerators, which are essential to supermarket retailing. Supermarkets are growing in number and size, while small traditional grocery store numbers are declining rapidly. Mergers and acquisitions are expected to reduce the 30 large food distribution firms that U.S. exporters must deal with to 18 or fewer.