Swiss long-life bakery product industry looks back onto a mixed year 2017

 

According to the association Biscosuisse, there was greater demand for bread-like baked goods (+ 3.5%), special products (+ 2.6%), long-life "freshly baked products" (+ 1.1%) as well as standard biscuits (+ 0.4%). The sales volumes of savoury snacks and nibbles (- 1.6%) as well as specialities (- 2.2%) however diminished. The most popular long-life bakery products continue to be standard biscuits and special products. They amount to around 65% of total production.

The result of domestic business was only slightly higher in terms of turnover and volume in 2017 compared to the previous year. At 31,950 tonnes the sales volume increased slightly by 0.3% and turnover rose similarly by 0.5% to CHF 350.4 m. The volumes of imported long-life bakery products increased compared to the previous year by 1.3%. Domestic consumption (domestic and imported long-life bakery products) rose by a total of 0.7%, although Swiss manufacturers lost some of their market share at 58.2% (- 0.4%). Based on overall domestic consumption of long-life bakery products, an average consumption per capita of 6.49 kg can be derived, which is equivalent to a slight decrease of 20 g compared to the previous year.

A negative development has been observed in export business since 2011. At least the decline in the past year was less marked than in the previous years. With 11,970 tonnes, 1.1% fewer long-life bakery products were sold abroad than in the previous year. Turnover fell by 0.5% to CHF 100.1 m. The list of 84 export destinations for Swiss long-life bakery products is still topped by Germany, which accounts for 34.7% of exports, followed by France (25.2%) and Saudi-Arabia (6.7%).