Rice, pasta most hoarded in NL at start of pandemic

The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic sparked hoarding instinct in people across the world, including in the Netherlands. Toilet paper, surprisingly, did not take first place for most hoarded item in the Netherlands. That honor went to rice, according to a study by market researcher IRI Nederland.

Rice proved to be the best-seller with a sales increase of 180 percent last March. After rice, came pasta products, followed by canned fish and canned vegetables. Toilet paper took fifth place.

Mainly thanks to hoarding fever during the first wave of the coronavirus last spring, 2020 was an extremely profitable year for premium brands.The top 100 brands, such as Unox, Hak, Aviko, Iglo and Page saw sales increase by ten percent to almost ten billion euros.

Commercial director of the IRI, Frank Smit, said to NOS: “These are very good figures. In the previous financial crisis, premium brands faced declining sales. Now they are experiencing, by far, the largest growth. That is usually not common in a crisis. This time, however, consumers apparently wanted to stock up, to be on the safe side.”