In 2022, baked goods worth over 20 billion euros were sold in Italy in the retail channel representing a very different situation compared to so-called “commodity” goods.  In fact, the past and expected average annual growth rates for the bakery sector exceed 3.5%, underlining the dynamism linked to this category of products.

Innovation is largely driven by:

•  sustainability, mainly seen as the creation of totally recyclable packaging and the development of a short and controlled supply chain (18% of total bakery products sold in the retail channel have claims related to sustainability),
• and wellness, which combines “free-from” products with the use of ingredients with specific nutritional properties (17% of new launches in the sector are focused on healthy products).

In this scenario, which sees these and also other elements of innovation, opportunities for growth and differentiation are opening up for companies in a sector that appears rather complex due to the type of products and composition of the competition.