Across Europe, the opportunity to grow in the world food category continues to develop.

In 2025, the global World Foods market was valued at between US$70 billion and US$80 billion and is forecast to exceed US$95 billion by the early 2030s, growing at around 7% annually. The opportunity continues to grow due to increased immigration, more demand for global flavour to become part of everyday shopping and multicultural households.

Retailers are moving towards embedding global cuisines across the store to meet the growing demand. In this article, discover how retailers across Europe are innovating across the world food categories.

Auchan Poland creating excitement among the category

In Poland, Auchan has created a clear world food zone, elevating the category through design, excellent signposting and an extensive assortment. 

K-Citymarket creating a desination

In Finland, K-Citymarket has created an impressive desination category for Tex Mex, being one of the most popular cuisines for family dinners. The cross-merchandising of products in these zones is impressive. They provide a mix of chilled and ambient products as well as a variety of drinks and food.

Morrisons improving navigation across the range

In the UK, Morrisons has been improving how shoppers navigate the category, creating clear bays segmenting the different sub-categories and by different regions. The retailer uses brands to create fixtures with overhead signage to segment clear zones.  

Aldi Switzerland introduces new world food aisle

Aldi Switzerland has improved its world food offering, due to the decline in non-food sales in the market, the discounter has added more space for permanent fixtures for world foods.

Bringing world food to life in the online channel

E-commerce can play a valuable enabler to enhance a retailer offering to the world food category. Carrefour France has improved the discoverability of shopping the world food category through its online channel. The retailer has brought the category to life by enabling shoppers to navigate through cuisines of choice offering both branded and private label products. A special feature of a one click recipe adds to the convenience of shopping through new world food category.

How can European retailers take world foods to new heights?

Looking beyond Europe can offer inspiration and show how single aisles can evolve further to offer more inspiration, allowing shoppers to try new flavours without high culinary skill and diversify weekday cooking. This aligns with broader trends toward experiential home cooking and adventurous eating, particularly among Millennials and Gen Z.

The retailers that succeed will be those that treat World Foods not as a single aisle, but as a strategic opportunity to build loyalty, increase basket size, and reflect the cultural richness of the communities they serve.

Looking for further inspiration?

To be enthused by best-in-class examples of innovation in your category or channel, join us on a Retail Safari. Incorporating flagship store developments, market briefings and opportunities to engage retail teams, our retail safaris will immerse you in the most inspirational new stores and concepts globally. To find out more, contact Nikki Fox.