“As this shift continues, such regions remain the most emphatic drivers of growth in retail bakery,”Cross said.
Along with this transition there are also “persistent concerns over obesity and maturing consumer demand” in these markets enabling manufacturers to counter flat volume sales by differentiating on the basis of health and convenience, she added.
Bread dominates, cookies promise
Globally bread remains the biggest seller, Cross detailed, and while bread sales in Western economies remains flat with packaged bread “a recognised loss leader” Latin America is promising.
Retail value sales of packaged breads in Latin America surged 4% CAGR between 2006 and 2011, according to Euromonitor data.
It is a shift in consumer spending sentiment that is driving this growth, Cross said.
“Latin American consumers are trading up to packaged bread which they believe is of a higher quality and tends to be multigrain or seeded in nature and nutritionally fortified. Additionally, these consumers are also just beginning to discover food intolerance bakery products.”
Cookies have also recorded “attractive growth” across Asia Pacific and Latin America, she added.
Between 2006 and 2011, Australasia, Asia Pacific and Latin America each registered a 5-6% CAGR in retail value of cookies. Volume growth of cookies also surged 10% in Asia Pacific and 6% in Australasia.
Savoury bites
Cross indicated savoury biscuits and crackers as another strong sector within the two regions, and noted that opportunities will be underpinned by consumer focus towards healthier alternatives to breads and increasing affluence.
