Rice, pasta, tinned fish and veg and toilet paper topped the list of goods which were stockpiled after the Netherlands went into lockdown last March.

Research group IRI and trade publication Foodmagazine have drawn up a list of products which increased in sales sharply at the start of the pandemic, when empty supermarket shelves were a common sight.

The sale of rice, for example, rose 180% while toilet paper was up 130%. The sale of tinned meat products, soap and long-life bread all more than doubled.

A brands also benefited from the hoarding, with companies such as Unox, Hak, Aviko, Iglo and Page booking more sales. In total, the best 100 performing A brands saw combined sales grow by over 10% last year, the research shows.

‘In the last crisis, the financial one, A brands lost out,’ IRI commercial director Frank Smit said. ‘Now, they have booked the biggest growth. And consumers would appear to want their cupboards to be well filled.’

One notable exception was the sale of peppermints and breath fresheners, which were hart hit last year, Smit said. ‘Not going out to work and socializing less has apparently made us less concerned about having fresh breath,’ he said. ‘So we used less peppermints and chewing gum.

Cigarette brand Marlboro remains top of the A brand list, with sales up 10% to €560m, thanks to increased taxes. Coca-Cola is in second place but will probably move into first when supermarkets are banned from selling tobacco products in 2024.