Frozen food market review
— 2016-02-18 —

‘Profound changes and new trends in the frozen food market emerged only in the second half of 2014, in the beginning of the autumn-winter season’, observes vice-president of “Produkty Pitania” , Damir Imamovic. The depth of the market drop could be more significant, according to Damir Immamoc, if producers had not taken measures to slow down rate of price increase for their products.  In new price environment manufactures were forced to search for new suppliers, optimize product range and logistics, review formulation which includes reducing portion sizes, and also conditions of cooperation with retailers, Damir Imamovic notes. “It was necessary to reduce costs without compromising quality of product, so as not to lose own consumer and market”, – he adds.

  Due to customer purchasing power decrease, today the demand is drifting to the segment of traditional, simpler and less expensive convenience foods: meat dumplings, pancakes, pizza, etc., as Damir Imamovic notes. «In the current situation a range of items on the frozen food market have got cost competitiveness. Today the best situation is in the segment of frozen convenience foods and ready-made meals which formulation traditionally includes a large content of dough, cereals, potato and various vegetables. So, traditional meat dumplings, stuffed dumplings and pancakes have risen in price least of all, occupy a significant market share, and currently they actually stabilize the market of frozen foods by keeping positive sales dynamics», – Damir Imamovic says.

Next 1-1,5 years frozen food market will have either no dynamics or, what is much more likely, low negative trend in a range from -3 to -5%, as Damir Imamovic predicts. The major reason will be further population income decrease against outrunning growth of prices for food products. “Some manufacturers will reduce production costs by means of change-over to cheaper ingredients, that in fact, means saving in quality. That’s not our tactics. We still believe that the winners are the producers who place their stakes on high quality of production for reasonable cost, inter alia, amid the crisis, – Damir Imamovic emphasizes. – For more than 18 years of work we have gained a wide experience in production of frozen convenience foods under ТМ “Zolotoy Petushok”, ready-made meals and lasagna under ТМ “Rossiyskaya Korona”. We will keep maintaining consistent high quality of our production and will not change the original range of goods for a cheaper alternative. Besides, we keep diversifying our product portfolio and offer our customers interesting novelties”.