The pasta market is worth £297.1m and has shot up 16.1% in value and 5% in volume. Much of the value growth has been driven by consumers paying more for their pasta, particularly dry pasta, which is up 23.8% in value and 5.5% in volume.

The growing popularity of branded pasta with its higher price point is also contributing to the value growth. While pasta continues to be dominated by own label, brands are rapidly gaining market share. Fresh pasta has seen more modest growth of 5.1% in value and 2.9% in volume.

The value of pasta sauce has grown by 11.5% to £346.6m [TNS 52w/e 9 August 2009], which is largely accounted for by price rises (from £2.69 per kg to £2.95), while volume is only up 1.8%.

Ambient sauce is the main driver, at 87% share, and with 13.6% value growth. A price rise in chilled sauce has been offset by a fall in volumes. Chilled sauce was in strong volume growth until the spring when there was a lot of trading down from chilled to ambient by consumers.

Tesco remains the largest retailer of pasta sauces but has lost share, down from 31.5% to 30.5%. Discounters have had the strongest value growth this year (+21.5%) while Asda has seen the best volume growth (+13.5%).

Focus On Pasta & Pasta Sauces

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