Sweet Biscuits, Snack Bars and Fruit Snacks in Lithuania

PROSPECTS

Despite low sales, increasing demand for fruit snacks supported by health and wellness trend

Due to the ongoing health and wellness trend in Lithuania, consumers are becoming increasingly educated about nutrition, leading to strong demand for fruit snacks, with a particularly strong retail volume performance by processed fruit snacks, which attracted consumers with declining unit prices, despite increasing purchasing power. Dried fruit, and fruit and nut bars also benefited from this trend.

Fresh products from bakeries offer competition to packaged sweet biscuits

Despite the positive performance of sweet biscuits, producers face increasing competition from the high number of bakeries that are emerging in Lithuania. There is more of a trend to purchase freshly baked biscuits from bakeries or even the in-store bakery section of grocery retailers with the latter channel, particularly supermarkets and hypermarkets, holding high value share of sweet biscuits.

Players start to address specific needs for health-related issues, with gluten-free options in spotlight

Another aspect of the health and wellness trend is the increasing demand for gluten-free products. Traditionally, this was not addressed by Lithuanian producers due to a lack of education regarding coeliac disease, its causes or the fact that there are products available globally that can offer an indulgence to sufferers of this condition.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Sweet biscuit players lead, benefiting from traditional and value appeal

Sweet biscuits, snack bars and fruit snacks continued to be led by producers of sweet biscuits in 2019, such as Mondelez Baltic, Laima and Javine, which is unsurprising given the high value and volume share held by sweet biscuits within the overall category. Their flagship brands Selga, Belvita and Duoniukai have a long-standing presence and are well-known to local consumers, benefiting from strong marketing support.

Ruta taps into health and wellness trend with launch of sugar-free GREENZ

Ruta UAB, a player in a number of confectionery categories in Lithuania, has made an official agreement with the Ministry of Health to lower the sugar, salt and fat content of its products. This agreement has allowed the company to focus on launching a new product line of dried fruit, nut and seed bars called GREENZ without additional sugar.

Players increasingly invest in social media to support brands

The leading player in fruit snacks, Arimex UAB, is changing its communication partners in 2019 to vipcommunications by focusing more on promoting both new and existing brands on social media networks as the company understands how important this platform is as a strong advertising tool. In addition, Arimex is investing EUR3.

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