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Clothing down, food flat. Confimprese and Circana certify a mini-ice in consumption by 2025


Last year, consumption fell, in value terms, by -1.4%. This was confirmed by the customary Confimprese-Jakala observatory, relating to the months of January-December 2025, according to which the downturn was accentuated in the latter part of the year, with the period September-December showing a fall of -2.9%. This figure is heavy, especially considering that it is calculated 'in value'. So it means that not even the inflation effect (which according to preliminary ISTAT data will be at 1.5%) helped to straighten out the final balance or keep it at least on par. LCC: Time-wise, market growth remained strong until the end of August From September onwards, a more cautious and resigned attitude among consumers emerged. October represented a moment of temporary recovery, but was followed by a new weakening in November and a negative close in December, with a value figure of just 0.4% and a contraction in volumes. Consumer packaged goods ended the year in negative territory (-0.9% in December in volumes).

InflationNon-food
 

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USA: a judge against Trump’s climate denialism


A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Department of Energy violated the law when Secretary Chris Wright selected five researchers who reject the scientific consensus on climate change to work in secret on a large government report on global warming. The Department of Energy released the report, which downplayed the dangers of warming, in late July without having held any public meetings or made the records available to the public. Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, later cited the report to justify a plan to repeal the endangerment finding, a landmark scientific determination that serves as the legal basis for regulating climate pollution. But the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 does not allow agencies to recruit or rely on secret groups for decision-making purposes. Judge William Young of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts affirmed that the Department of Energy did not deny that it did not hold open meetings or assemble a balance of viewpoints, as the law requires, when it created the panel, known as the Climate Working Group... Excerpt from the New York Times Below: an article from The Wall Street Journal correlating food prices and climate extremes

Climate change
 

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EU import of cheap parcels rises by 26%


The number of low-cost e-commerce parcels received from outside the EU rose sharply again last year, increasing by 26 per cent. In total, 5.8 billion parcels with a value of up to EUR 150 were imported. This equates to approximately one parcel per EU citizen per month. On this subject read also : The failure of Italian tariffs on small parcels that also penalises cargo flights (and other 'Financial Times' snippets) Many companies have diverted deliveries to other EU countries to circumvent the tax. The result: the number of low-value parcels arriving directly in Italy from non-EU countries between 1 and 20 January dropped by 36%. We have already reported on this here.

E-Commerce
 

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Amazon Fresh shops will close


The company will convert its physical shops to Whole Foods Markets. The move is not surprising, since the company reduced its Amazon Fresh offering last year. Amazon closed several shops in California and all 19 Amazon Fresh shops in the UK. What can we say? Since 2017, the date when Amazon bought Whole Foods, the company had its sights set on a possible conversion in the shops that were born in Austin (Texas), but chose to experiment with technology and, in my opinion, uninteresting. Customers are interested in a few things: prices, quality and service, as well as a pleasant environment and friendly staff. Here - in the various Amazon experiments - there was a cold atmosphere, where the quality of private-label food counted for little or nothing. Obviously this will have an impact on employment: 16,000 people will be laid off. Edited 27 January, updated 29 January 2026

AmazonPrivate LabelWhole Foods
 

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European rice at risk: 60% of consumption from imports also because the European safeguard clause has expired


These days in Brussels a decision on the preferential duty system on arrivals from South East Asia. Rice industries: the already processed product costs the same as the raw product in the EU Facilitated (and cheap) imports, global surpluses, together with the devaluation of the dollar, reduced freight rates and the impact of the climate crisis on producers are putting a strain on the resilience of the Italian rice supply chain. The latest alarm for a concomitance of factors 'that are not manageable by the supply chain' comes from Airi, the Association of Rice Industries, which for some years now, with the expiry of the European safeguard clause that Italy had painstakingly managed to activate in Brussels, has been facing the resumption of duty-free imports from large producers, which have come to cover over 60% of total European purchases. Rice that is largely ready-packed and packaged, sold at prices that are unsustainable for continental producers: today, via Rotterdam, milled white rice arrives at 400 euro per tonne; competing European varieties cost at least twice as much, 800-1,000 euro. In Italy, 400 euros buys a tonne of paddy rice, an agricultural raw material that then has to be transported, stored, processed and packaged... Il Sole 24 ore On the safeguard clauses read here.

AgricultureClimate change
 

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Amazon lays off 16,000 employees


The latest round of job cuts brings the total number of redundancies to 30,000 in 3 months The retailer laid off around 14,000 employees last October, bringing the total amount of redundancies to 30,000 in three months. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy warned of workforce reductions in June 2025 due to the company's investment in AI. Also on Tuesday, Amazon said it was closing its Fresh and Go grocery shops, after deciding to focus its efforts on expanding Whole Foods Market shops and same-day deliveries of fresh food from warehouses (with Amazon Now). As a result, the company is laying off employees who helped run Fresh and Go's operations, according to an internal memo seen by the Wall Street Journal. Read also this article.

AmazonDeliveryE-CommerceWhole Foods
 

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E-commerce: the Italian 2 euro tax on small parcels does not work


parcels are diverted to other EU countries to avoid the tax... "The measure has had a boomerang effect," said Valentina Menin, director general of industry group Assaeroporti, which represents companies that manage 32 Italian airports, including Milan Malpensa, one of the country's biggest cargo hubs. "The entire Italian logistics sector is losing business. When it decided to impose the tax as part of the 2026 budget, Rome expected to be able to raise €122 million this year and €245 million the following year. However, according to the Italian Customs Agency, the number of low-value parcels arriving directly in Italy from non-EU countries between 1 and 20 January was 36% lower than in the same period last year. According to current EU rules, once goods enter the single market and pass through customs on arrival, they can circulate freely without further checks or duties, allowing companies to easily avoid Italian handling fees...'Goods continue to enter Italy by truck, without paying the prescribed tariff, resulting in increased pollution and shifting traffic to other countries,' he said. "The situation can only get worse if a solution is not found..." Financial Times Read more here

E-Commerce
 

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To improve rider safety, the Indian government has asked ‘quick commerce’ platforms to drop their promise to satisfy customers in ten minutes


This has not slowed down the economic boom of these services for impatient customers, observes Isabelle Chaperon, columnist for the economics section of 'Le Monde': "In India, 'fast trade' is moving too fast." Fast commerce is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Indian gig economy. In November 2024, Datum Intelligence estimated that this market, negligible in 2020, would reach USD 6 billion (EUR 5.1 billion) in 2024 and USD 40 billion by 2030. Although local shops, called kitana, still account for 92% of food purchases, they are suffering from this competition. Meanwhile, the major online platforms, engaged in fierce competition, remain unprofitable, but their value is growing strongly. The share price of Eternal, owner of market leader Blinkit, has increased fivefold since 2023. Quick commerce appeals for various reasons: poorly organised distribution and chaotic traffic. It is also favoured by the abundance of young workers, paid a few rupees. According to projections by the government think tank NITI Aayog for 2022, the approximately 7.7 million people doing 'casual jobs' for internet platforms in India, from taxi drivers to deliverymen, are expected to reach 30 million by 2030 Read more on the subject here.

DeliveryE-Commerce