Booming year for food delivery services in 2020

Grocery delivery services had a great time during the coronavirus pandemic. Last year food retailers like supermarkets and specialty shops saw deliveries increase by an estimated 49 percent, amounting to 2.7 billion euros in revenue, the Dutch Foodservice Institute (FSIN) said, NU.nl reports.

Meal deliveries increased by an estimated 37 percent. Together the delivery services now account for 10 percent of the total expenditure on food and drinks. In 2020, 23 percent of all money spent on eating out was done via a meal ordering service.

Had the pandemic not occurred, experts estimate that the growth of the food delivery sector would only have been 14 percent. “Corona acted as a major driving force behind the development. Delivery was already a growing trend, but this year sales went through the roof”, FSIN said. “People that normally never ordered were been forced to become acquainted with the delivery of warm meals and groceries at home."

The growth is expected to last beyond the end of the coronavirus crisis “People who previously never ordered meals or groceries will continue to do so. Although revenue for the food delivery sector is not expected to reach the same heights in 2021, as it did in 2020, the sector definitely will remain in the green.”