The soup market - Italy

The term soup refers to a specific category of soup that is prepared with different ingredients and eaten with bread or croutons as an accompaniment. Soup is usually used as an appetizer or first course. The main ingredients used in the preparation of soup are meat or vegetable broth, stale bread, and grated cheese. This study focuses on the types of ready-to-eat soups that are readily available in any supermarket. Globally, the soup market was valued at $16.1 billion in 2018 and the compound annual growth rate (CAGR), between 2019 and 2025, is estimated at 3.0 percent. This large growth is due to the fact that more and more people are aware of the benefits of a proper and healthy diet. The Italian market for ready-to-eat soups has always been steady, but as the Nielsen Observatory states in Italy between 2018 and 2019 there was a real boom in sales (+28% compared to the previous year). There are three main trends for the coming years: greater differentiation, more sustainable packaging and an increase in e-commerce. Regarding the first trend, given the market opportunity, more companies are selling fresh, frozen, and canned soups with more ingredients and different recipes. In addition, industry players are aiming to have containers that are 100 percent organic or reusable in other ways (after eating the soup, the container remains a bowl that can be used for other meals). Finally, several studies show that by 2027 the main sales channel for ready-to-eat soups will not be the supermarket but e-commerce. The companies with the best results in terms of products sold in Italy are: Findus, Knorr, Buitoni, and Orogel.