As the Belarusian economy grew marginally, with a positive increase in real GDP in 2017, and real consumer expenditure rose, packaged food returned to positive volume growth in 2017. Fuelled by inflation retail prices continue increasing in 2017 but at a lower rate compared with the review period as a whole. Over the review period Belarusian...
Retail sales of edible oils are mainly generated by the high popularity of home cooking in the country. Traditionally, for cooking purposes local consumers have been using cotton oil, which has been broadly available across the country. Nevertheless, cotton oil was challenged by sunflower oil during the review period to which many consumers...
Innovation in the category is mainly limited to jams and preserves and tends to focus on the introduction of new flavours, the use of natural ingredients with fewer preservatives and organically produced items. As a result, honey recorded strong growth though the uplift was from a low base, with the category benefiting from the entry of smaller,...
Soup remains an underdeveloped packaged food category in Belarus mainly due to competition from homemade variants, which are very popular among Belarusians. As such packaged soup receives little consumer attention. People tend to cook soup at home from scratch rather that purchasing ready-to-heat or pre-manufactured products. Low consumer...
Belarusian consumers are paying more attention to the quality of the ingredients in their sauces, dressings and condiments, with many also preferring products of local origin. Nevertheless, the share of imported products in the category continued to grow towards the end of the review period as imported sauces, dressings and condiments offer...
Despite the positioning of breakfast cereals as healthy choices for breakfast, often Belarusians still do not perceive breakfast cereals as high-grade or the healthiest food to start a day, and tend to eat them mostly between their main meals and as a snack or dessert. It is also popular to take breakfast cereals on trips and journeys, as...