China will overtake the US to become the world's biggest grocery market next year and by 2015 it will be joined in the top five by Russia, as well as India and Brazil, according to a study published Saturday.
International food and grocery analyst IGD forecasts China's grocery market would top 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion) in 2015.
That compares with 2010 figures which saw the US rack up $911 billion in grocery sales, ahead of China's $817 billion.
By 2015, India will be in third place, with a grocery market worth about $586 billion, ahead of Russia on $539 billion and Brazil on $452 billion, IGD said, adding its forecasts assumed exchange rates remained at their average levels for 2010.
That would see Japan, third placed in 2010, drop out of the top five, India move up from fourth to third and Russia from seventh to fourth.
Brazil is expected to retain the fifth position it captured in 2010 by overtaking France.
"In 2015, the combined grocery markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China will be worth $3 trillion and they will have a collective population of over 3 billion people," said IGD's Joanne Denney-Finch.
