In the category confectionery in 2015 stronger just dropped the sale of chocolate, follows from the data of the research company “Nielsen Russia” provided . Compared with 2014 sales of chocolate confectionery declined by 3% in real terms due to rising prices and the declining purchasing power of Russians. “Chocolate is not a necessity, its consumption is reduced”, — explained the head of group on work with companies in the food market “Nielsen Russia” Sergey Glamazda. This statistic confirms international research company Euromonitor International. According to her, the sale of chocolate and chocolate confectionery in Russia in 2015 in real terms declined by 3.1% to 716,6 thousand tons.
According to the Centre for research of the confectionery market (CICR), chocolate consumption has fallen even faster — by 8.4%, to 3,99 kg per year per person. Executive Director of CICR Elizaveta Nikitina explains that first the Russians refuse to buy expensive, particularly imported products. In 2015, imports of chocolate and products containing cocoa fell by 27.6%, according to the calculations of the international trade Centre of Moscow, based on the statistics of the Federal customs service.
The falling demand for chocolate has been shown to be beneficial for producers of flour confectionery products: sales of cookies, cakes and wafers has increased in 2015 for 6, 7 and 9% respectively in real terms, follows from the data of Nielsen. In money terms sales of biscuits increased by 21%, gingerbread — on 24%, and waffles — 25%.
The changes in preferences of Russians is explained by factor prices, says Glamazda. According to Rosstat, kilogram of biscuits in Russia in January, the average cost is 140 roubles, cakes — 118 rubles., and of chocolate and chocolate sweets — 752 570 RUB and RUB, respectively. The rate of growth of prices for chocolate and chocolate products during the year were noticeably higher than on gingerbread and biscuits. While the chocolate increased by an average of 33.5%, the cost of cakes grew by only 16%.
The increase in sales of flour confectionery products of long storage was confirmed and principal owner of JSC “Confectionery Association “Favourite edge” (producer of cookies and cakes under the trademark “Posidelkino” and “Orange sun”), Dmitry Kostygin. The largest manufacturers of chocolate and chocolate confectionery in Russia — “United confectioners” (TM “Red October”, “rot Front” and “Babaevsky”), Mars Inc (Mars, Snickers, Twix, Milky Way, Dove, “Korkunov”, etc.), Ferrero Group (Ferrero Rocher, Kinder) did not reply to requests .
Analysts Nielsen also reported a significant increase in sales of biscuits under private labels of retail chains. In 2014 private brand retailers in sales in real terms for the first time overtook the market leader — the brand “Anniversary” of the international company Mondelez Int. According to Nielsen, in 2014 the share of private labels was 18.7 vs 15.8% of the “Jubilee.” In 2015, the products of the retailers had already 21,1% of the market, while the share of “Jubilee” was reduced to 15.6%. The representative of the company Mondelez had not responded to questions . “Russia is a critical market for us, in the top ten most significant, and in the categories of biscuits and chocolate is one of the most important countries”, — said the head of Mondelez Int. Irene Rosenfeld in an interview in November 2015.
