Food for megapolises
— 2005-06-07 —

The ready-made foods market is growing rapidly in Russia. Russian consumers are learning about lasagna and rassolnik, which are both available at supermarkets.

Just a couple of years ago, the ready-made foods market word combination was associated with dry mixes that needed additional water. As the new segment of ready-to-eat foods evolves, this market is changing drastically.

Whereas ready-made foods are more expensive than raw ingredients, the target audience for these products are the  middle class. These people living are usually living in large cities and working full time,  with little time left for cooking. This class can afford to pay a little extra for such conveniences.

Produkty Pitania Marketing Vice-President Tea Grguric speaks about the trend: «A typical consumer of ready-to-eat lunches will be a resident of a megapolis, that suffers from acute shortage of time in the fast paced city life. Modern men and women need much time for all aspects of their lives including work, family and friends».

Produkty Pitania admits that packages represent an important element of such a product as ready-to-eat meals because cooking such meals at home takes only a few minutes. Naturally, in this case a package should be both attractive and convenient because consumers should be able to heat products in ovens or microwaves while still packed.

Russian ready-to-eat meals market is not building up yet. Nevertheless Produkty Pitania specialists estimated that this segment will experience the average growth of 25% a year.  The changes will be both quantitative and qualitative as the market structure evolves and new product niches emerge.

Recently, specialized players entered ready-to-eat second dishes market. Produkty Pitania Company introduced six ready-to-eat dishes as ready-to-eat meals and hot snacks under the umbrella Zolotoy Petushok brand. Vice-President for Marketing Tea Grgurich says, “ready-to-eat lunches are a promising niche that are expected to actively grow within the next two years. However, getting used to new products introduced by manufacturers is a gradual process and we must help consumers get used to such new habits. The major reasons not to buy ready-to-eat meals is lack of trust  in quality of such meals, no relevant consumption habits and lack of Russian-made products that meet their taste.