French wine production is likely to rise this year and harvesting could start early after warm weather, the country's farm ministry forecast, just as Italy and France try to curb premium output to support prices. In a report containing its first forecast for 2020, the French farm ministry on Friday projected output at 44.7-45.7 million hectolitres, a rise of 6-8% compared with last year and slightly above the country's average of the past five years. A hectolitre is the equivalent of 100 litres, or 133 standard wine bottles.
U.S. soybean futures edged higher on Monday, rebounding from a six-week low touched in the previous session, though gains were checked by expectations of ample global supplies. The most active soybean futures were up 0.2% at $8.69-1/2 a bushel, having closed down 1.2% on Friday when prices hit a June 30 low of $8.66-3/4 a bushel. The most active wheat futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade were up 0.2% at $4.96-1/4 a bushel, after closing down 1.1% on Friday when prices hit a July 7 low of $4.96 a bushel. The most active corn futures were up 0.36% to $7.53-3/4, after ending 0.9% lower in the previous session.
Portugal’s FMCG market grew by 11.8% in value during the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2019, according to a Kantar study for Centromarca. Lusa reported that while fewer visits were made to stores during the first six months of 2020, this decrease was offset by a 14% increase in volume and 18.7% in value. Out-of-home consumption saw a 'gradual return' as the period progressed, the study found, with the growth of 'snacking' and increased consumption of indulgent products such as ice cream and some alcoholic beverages.
Swedish retailer ICA Gruppen saw like-for-like sales grow by 10% across its largest store banner, Maxi ICA Stormarknad, in July with reported sales up 11.6%. Across all formats, like-for-like sales were up 5.7% (reported sales up 5.9%) for the month, to SEK 11.52 billion (€1.12 billion) with larger format stores performing stronger than its smaller outlets. Its ICA Kvantum business saw like-for-like sales up 7.9% (reported sales up 8.5%), while ICA Supermarket was up 2.1% on a like-for-like basis (+0.9%). Its ICA Nära proximity arm saw a like-for-like sales increase of 1.4% (reported sales up 1.2%). In the period January to July 2020, Maxi ICA Stormarknad was also the strongest performer, with like-for-like sales up 9.9%, compared to +7.7% at ICA Kvantum, +6.5% at ICA Nära and +4.7% at ICA Supermarket.
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
