Frankfurt, Germany, 26 March 2012 - The DLG's latest Trendmonitor 2012, based on the autumn survey conducted in September/ October 2011, reveals the current investment sentiments in the German food and beverage industry.

 

A total of 281 companies across 16 categories in the food and beverage industry participated in this survey. Of these, 117 companies expressed investment intentions in the near-term for 2012, with 38 of these targeting investments in excess of a million euros. For the mid-to-longer term, 88 companies signaled investment commitments into the next three years.

 

Among the sectors, dairy companies provided the most positive response to investment plans for 2012, a result that parallels findings from other industry polls. Of the 38 companies planning to commit above a million euros towards investments in 2012, 13 or almost a third of these were dairy companies.

 

On specific areas for investments, production processes came up tops, with considerable interest also in packaging, storage and food safety issues. Overall, companies ranked food safety, production safety, and improved product quality as key factors with regards to decision-making on automation-related investments.

 

As to the proposed nature of the investments over the next five years, efficiency ranked as the top influence on investment decisions, followed by capacity expansion and further automation. Tracking trends in automative technologies, the survey also revealed mixed responses among companies on whether robotics would play an increasing role in their future operations and in the industry as a whole.

 

 

 

The DLG conducts twice-yearly surveys in the spring and autumn to find out the investment intentions and sentiments of agriculture in Europe, taking both a short and mid term outlook. The first survey for food began September 2011.

 

Malene Conlong

Email: m.conlong@dlg.org

Tel: +49 (0)69 24788237