Italian pesto producers think positive and expect good news from Summer 2020. In fact the return to holidays in Italy should give a boost to 'seasonal' shops, that is to say, the points of sale that last year recorded the greatest increase in sales of this typical Italian sauce (+5.9%, source: Nielsen), which reached almost 9 million euros in this distribution channel only.

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This is maybe too little for a market that is worth 210 million euros considering the entire Italian large-scale retail trade, but, however, the trend is a sign of the good situation that pesto is undergoing in the consumer market in Italy.

NOT ONLY BASIL: SALES OF OTHER KINDS OF PESTO INCREASE TOO

According to the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Italians are putting more and more packs of pesto in their shopping cart (+5% per year) and spend more and more to buy it. Both because the average prices continue to rise (now it's over 11 euros per kg) and because they prefer the high-end variants.

But what Italians love above all are the most unusual and particular versions of pesto and they buy, literally, it in all possible colour. If the traditional green pesto, made with basil and inspired by the Genoese tradition, continues to dominate the market in recent years, many different taste variants are flourishing. Customers can find red and white pestos, as well as pestos made with dried fruit (such as nuts or pistachios) or vegetables (such as broccoli, radicchio or artichokes), gourmet pestos and those with a specific regional flavour. The ‘other pestos’ segment is, after all, the most dynamic one. It is recording an annual growth of over 6%, and also the segment where all new product launches have been concentrated.

“Innovation has been decisive for the growth of this market” - confirms Francesca D'Imperio, marketing manager of the Italian preserves company Star. “The launch of more particular