Ireland: Pastry and Cakes Market and the Impact of COVID-19 on It in the Medium Term

Ireland: Pastry and Cakes Market and the Impact of COVID-19 on It in the Medium Term

The pastry and cakes market in Ireland was equal to 416.00 million USD (calculated in retail prices) in 2015. Until 2025, the pastry and cakes market in Ireland is forecast to reach 386.75 million USD (in retail prices) and decreasing at a CAGR of -0.06% per annum for the period 2020-2024. This is an increase, compared to the decline of about -1.73% per year, registered in 2015-2019.

The average consumption per capita in value terms reached 88.78 USD per capita (in retail prices) in 2015. In the next five years, it declined at a CAGR of -2.34% per annum. In the medium term (by 2025), the indicator is forecast to slow down its decline and decrease at a CAGR of -0.85% per annum.

An important driver for the development of the bread and bakery industry in the medium term is connected with the busy lifestyles and demand for convenient products. The dynamic lifestyle of consumers creates an increasing demand for quick and nutritional meals with minimum preparation and efforts. Due to the fact that more consumers are snacking all throughout the day, snacking is expected to be a main driver, prompting bread and bakery consumption, especially among younger generations. With the increasing demand for mini pastries, croissants and sandwiches, convenience is more important than ever. Therefore, the increase in demand for ready-to-eat bakery products and other prepared goods such as frozen pizzas, doughs, cakes and pastries and others is expected to boost overall demand for bread and bakery in the next few years. At the same time, the health awareness among the consumers is growing rapidly in the last few years. Especially important for both the main producing companies and the smaller ones is to coming up with new production processes, new product types and even new flavors to meet this specific need. The increasing bread and bakery food varieties with healthier ingredients and additives will drive the market development in the medium term and will increase the global demand for bread and bakery in the medium term.

Another strong challenge for the market development in the medium term is the clean label. Consumers want to see labels with ingredients that they are familiar with. Some bakery products contain various oxidants/reductants, emulsifiers and preservatives, which have been associated with different health risks. Furthermore, today’s consumers, especially the so called millennials, have a range of demands. As already mentioned, they typically want “back to nature” goods, which are made of natural ingredients and entirely without chemicals and additives. This means that products with einkorn flour are likely to become more popular than those with white wheat flour. Moreover, millennials are also looking at the label, which is indicating the provenance of the ingredients and are especially attracted by the popular “free from” trend and the products, which are gluten-free, preservatives-free, sugar-free and so on. As a result, demand for indulgence products such as pastries, cakes and other bakeries may significantly decrease in the upcoming years, when it comes to the younger consumers.