The food and beverages stock performance during and after the 2007-2011 crisis

The importance of food in the everyday life is vital, so as its importance in the economy, especially in Europe. 'Food for the planet' has also been the slogan for the latest expo organised in Milan. Despite this, little evidence has been provided on the performance of food and beverage producers during the latest financial and economic crisis. This paper aims at filling in this gap by evaluating the stock performance of food and beverages companies listed in Europe since 2004 and during and after the recent financial crisis (2007-2011) to highlight their behaviour compared to the overall economy. Yearly, monthly and risk-adjusted performance measures for the MSCI Europe beverages and MSCI Europe food producers are computed and compared to the MSCI Europe Index. Results show that the industry had a higher return since 2004 and showed higher resilience than the market to the financial and economic crisis.