Canned goods, rice, pasta… with the war in the Middle East and the rise in prices, the French are resorting to “precautionary purchases”

They store. The war in the Middle East has pushed French households to make so-called “precautionary” purchases such as canned fish, rice or pasta, without “however disrupting the overall market”, analyzes the Circana firm on Thursday. “Certain back-of-the-cupboard foods are showing strong increases, such as flours and starchy foods,” writes the firm in a weekly note for the week of March 9 to 15.

The war in the Middle East, triggered on February 28 with the Israeli-American attack on Iran, “probably reinforces the already high feeling of uncertainty and may encourage some French people to make precautionary purchases”, continues the institute specializing in consumer behavior.

“Canned goods (meat and vegetables), rice, pasta and oils recorded atypical sales peaks for the period,” specifies Emily Mayer, research director at Circana, on LinkedIn. Canned mackerel thus increased in volume by +15.9% over the week, sardines by 12.1%, rice by 10.2% and pasta by 8.1%.

Like Covid or Ukraine

“Not enough, however, to shake up the overall market,” she warns, with consumer products showing moderate growth (+0.3%) over the week, slightly lower than the trend observed since the start of the year (+0.5%). In other words, panic has not spread to households. Even if, according to the expert, “these behaviors are reminiscent of the panic buying of March 2020 as the first confinement approached, as well as those of late February-early March 2022 at the outbreak of the war in Ukraine”.

“We are nevertheless observing less marked growth in 2026 – perhaps a sign that the French are getting used to navigating in an unstable context and are reacting less strongly,” continues Emily Mayer. Finally, she notes that increases in fuel prices have not “distracted the French from hypermarkets”.