Europe’s Mature Bread Markets: France Leads, Germany to Grow
The German market is forecast to increase by 2019, with the expected retail value decreasing slightly in France and Italy, according to statista.com.
Many Europeans eat bread or wheat-based meals at least once a day – if not twice. France represents Europe’s largest bread and bakery products market, with a retail value of USD23.7bn in 2015, followed by Italy and Germany at USD23.4 and USD22.8bn respectively. In comparison, the market in Romania is valued at approximately one-seventh of the size of the French market, at EUR3.4bn. However, Romania is one of the biggest European consumers, with a per capita consumption of 96 kg, in 2016, according to the Romanian industry association.
Bread was the most popular bakery product in Europe, with an approximate market share of 80% in 2015. Patisserie, viennoiserie and savory pastry followed, with market shares of 11, 7 and 3% respectively. That year, the majority of these products (roughly 70%) were sold fresh, but pre-packed long-life products made up approximately one-quarter of the total sales volume too. Bake-off products were good for 5% of the total sales.
In 2015, artisan bakers made up the majority of the bakery product supply chain at 28%, followed by pre-packed long-life products at 25%. Italy was home to the largest number of bakery companies in 2016, at 1,974. In comparison, Germany only had 499 bakeries that year, despite being only a slightly smaller retail market. On the other end of the spectrum, Ireland only had 11 bakery companies, and Estonia 15.
Whereas regular bakery products sales are forecast to slightly decrease in a number of large markets, the market for health and wellness bakery products is expected to grow considerably in the near future. In 2015, this market was valued at USD1.72bn in Germany, with the UK following at USD1.6bn. In 2015, the largest number of organic processors of bakery products could be found in France, with 5,580 companies. In comparison, runner-up Italy only had 847 organic bakery processors. Organic bread processing is far less popular in Croatia (1 processor in 2015), Cyprus (2 companies) and Iceland (3 processors). Based on the total market, organic food was most popular in Switzerland (4.5% market share) and Sweden (3.4%).
With the ever-increasing popularity of organic food, though, the market shares for organic bread and bakery products are only expected to increase further all over Europe, according to www.statista.com.