Frozen foods market: growth chilled down
— 2005-06-05 —

The frozen foods market keeps growing as the demand grows, structure and culture of consumers change and income increases. However, the growth rate has slowed down from 36% in 2003 to 19% in 2004.

Notwithstanding the slower growth rate the market remains a very promising lump.

Experts provide their opinions on the matter.

Produkty Pitania Vice-President Damir Imamovic observes that in the last five years, the amount of frozen convenience foods imported in Russia has been steadily reducing. Whenever a western company chooses to import foods into the country, it has to provide standard foods at reduced costs. Russian manufacturers are more r aware of what Russian consumers want; and have a better understanding of regional differences in both demand and popular income.

Damir Imamovic believes that there are still unoccupied niches in the frozen convenience foods market in Russia and they will try to tap into those areas soon. Another important trend is that Russians are buying more poultry than ever before.

A major trend seen in the food market Mr. Imamovic pointed out, is  the growing sales of value-added foods and  complex food recipes. Production development is underway in terms of improving technologies and introducing new products and product categories, such as ready-made meals and hot snacks. For instance, Produkty Pitania Company introduced 11 new products in 4 categories in 2004.

By Natalia Olentsova