News

Consumers spend more seeking sustainable food and drink

27 August 2024 By Louis Thomas

“Sustainability-aware” diners in the UK spend around £9 more per month than the average consumer on eating and drinking out, according to CGA’s latest Wine Insight Report.

The report reveals that 74% of wine drinkers claim to try to lead an “environmentally friendly” lifestyle – above the 69% level for all drinking age consumers.

As for how much those eco-conscious consumers spend, the report says that the average monthly on-trade spend is £115, almost 8% above the restaurant, café, pub and bar spend of the overall average.

Indeed, of the 74% of wine drinkers who say that they are in pursuit of an “environmentally friendly” lifestyle, 32% said that they tend to order wines in the mid-to-high price bracket – among all wine drinkers, this figure is only 21%. Furthermore, a significant majority (80%) of “sustainability-aware” wine drinkers that they would pay more for a wine that has been “ethically-sourced”.

36% of those surveyed claimed that they consider the sustainability credentials of a venue before going, and almost a third (34%) said that they would be less likely to visit a venue in the future if they discovered that it did not take sustainability seriously.

However, while the data fairly conclusively demonstrates that sustainability is something that UK consumers do take seriously, or at least claim to, CGA notes that there is “a gap between their interest and knowledge”.

Just 28% of wine consumers are aware of the practices of “all or most” wine brands – meaning that a significant proportion do not know what makes a wine “sustainable” or not.