Baked Goods in Lithuania

PROSPECTS

Volume sales continue to decline as consumers turn their back on baked goods

Lithuania’s shrinking population and the influence of the health and wellness trend combined to ensure negative volume sales growth in baked goods during 2019. Categories in which sales are dominated by high-sugar indulgence products suffered from falling sales, notably pastries and cakes, while bread saw demand continue to slide as consumers looked elsewhere for their starchy carbohydrates.

Packaged cakes remains a category largely bound by tradition

Most Lithuanians remain rather conservative when it comes to packaged cakes. For this reason, the most traditional types of cakes remain the big winners in the category.

Demand for pastries focuses on flesh products, with frozen baked goods struggling

Winter 2018/2019 saw sales of frozen baked goods remain very low in Lithuania. There is little tradition of the products in the country and most consumers ordinarily associate baked goods with freshness.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Vegetable bread becomes a particularly promising product segment

The health and wellness trend continues to positively impact trends in beta goods in 2019 and this was perhaps most noteworthy in the increasing range of vegetable bread on offer in the country. Towards the end of the review period, Fazer launched an entire range of vegetable bread, which include carrot, beetroot and bean breads.

Traditional manufacturers struggle to keep pace with changing consumer tastes

During the review period, one of the most iconic and traditional brands of packaged waffle cakes, Danutes Pyragas, disappeared from Lithuanian retail shelves due to the bankruptcy of its parent company Danutes Pyragai UAB. The main reason for this situation is widely accepted to be the manufacturer’s inability to innovate to keep track of changing consumer tastes.

The gluten-free segment continues to expand

2019 saw demand for gluten-free bread continues to increase in Lithuania. After the country’s first specialist gluten-free bakeries opened in Klaipeda and Kaunas in 2017, the trend expanded to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius during 2018 and 2019.

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