The Netherlands Chamber of Commerce says specialty food shops have been a real growth story over the past ten years, but the number of butcher shops and fruitsellers has been dropping.
Cheese shops and bakers, as well as stores specializing in foreign foods have been increasing, while greengrocers and butcher shops have been losing out to supermarkets, the association said.
Between 2014 and 2024 the number of cheese shops grew by 37% to 732. Over the same time, 206 more bakers (16%) and 135 foreign food stores (20%) have opened. The Chamber attributed some of the rise in cheese shops to pandemic conditions that led to people looking for gourmet food that they would otherwise have enjoyed at restaurants or catered events.
Over that time, however, greengrocers dropped from 1229 to 947, and butchers dropped by 228 stores to 2136.
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