Germany: Food Service - Hotel Restaurant Institutional

With more than 83 million of the world’s wealthiest consumers, Germany is the largest market for food and agricultural products in the European Union. The German market offers good opportunities for U.S. exporters of consumer-oriented food and agriculture products, particularly nuts, fish and seafood products, dried fruits, bakery products, and organic products. COVID-19 related lock-down and physical distancing measures heavily impacted the German food sector in 2020. In comparison to 2019, German food service sales decreased by 38.6 percent to USD 68 billion, with all three major market segments - hotel, restaurant, and catering - suffering from sales losses. The entire sector has been hit hard by the pandemic and government financial support was often not enough to compensate for the losses.