ZURICH: The world’s leading food industry group Nestle saw its sales plunge 5.1 per cent in the first quarter, it said on Tuesday, blaming the effect of exchange rates and strength of the Swiss franc.

During the first three months of the year, the maker of Nespresso capsules and baby food and many other products, said it had taken 20.8 billion Swiss francs ($23.6bn) in sales.

That number missed the expectations of analysts polled by the AWP financial news agency, who had foreseen sales of 21.1bn francs for the quarter.

Paul Bulcke, who heads the Swiss company, maintained that currency rates were to blame for the drop and stressed Nestle had seen organic growth of 4.2pc during the quarter.

“Our organic growth in the first months of the year was in line with expectations and driven by volume rather than price,” he said in a statement.