
Milk. Sales totaling NIS 1.15 billion
Photo: Visual Photos

Coca Cola. Tops beverage category

Israelis love their chicken
Photo: Visual/Photos

Hard cheese: 8.4% rise in sales
Photo: Visual Photos
Milk is the most sold product in Israel
with sales totaling NIS 1.15 billion (about $303,214 million) in 2009, according to data compiled recently by the Store Next company for the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce ahead of a food exhibition.
The figures are based on 1,500 points of sale examined between the months of January and October, compared to the same period last year.
Despite the high volume of sales, the past 10 months saw a 1.7% drop in the consumption of milk.
Coca Cola tops the beverage category with sales totaling NIS 449 million ($118.4 million) – a 2.1% drop compared to last year. Bottled water recorded a sharper decline – 6.1%, mainly due to the pollution in the sources of water, which hurt two of the economy's leading companies.
In the food category, the biggest demand is for yogurt products, which were purchased by Israelis for NIS 953 million ($251 million) this year.
Another popular product is chicken, which recorded a 2.6% rise in sales compared to last year. Between January and October Israelis consumed poultry in the amount of NIS 877 million ($231 million).
The biggest rise in consumption – 10.1% - was recorded in the cottage cheese category.
Other popular products are packaged salads (NIS 605 million - $159.5 million), eggs (NIS 510 million - $135 million), soft white cheese (NIS 446 million - $118 million), and hard cheese, which recorded an 8.4% rise in sales.
Israelis also love salty snacks, which were bought this year for NIS 627.6 million ($165.5 million) – down 1.6% compared to last year. The sweet snacks category saw a 3.4% rise. The consumption of canned tuna recorded a significant increase of 6.1%.
In total, a 1.5% drop has been recorded in the entire food and beverages industry compared to the same months last year. According to estimates, this decline will be erased or reduced in the last two months of the year, in which consumption is expected to recover.