The home baking boom has boosted product launch activity in bakery ingredients and mixes in Australia, with the category now accounting for around a third of all bakery product launches here, according to Innova Market Insights.
It's part of a worldwide trend which sees countries that had previously embraced prepared cakes in a ready-to-eat format, including the US and the UK, return to home baking.
“It is these latter nations that are now seeing a reversal in fortunes for the home baking market, with it rising again from the ashes, driven initially perhaps by financial constraints but more recently by the runaway success of TV shows featuring celebrity chefs and bakers and reality-style competitions,” says Lu Ann Williams, director of innovation at Innova Market Insights.
“This has impacted not only on the ingredients used for baking from scratch, such as flour, culinary fruit and nuts and decorations and coatings, but also the bakery mixes market, which can still provide an acceptable middle ground between going totally back to basics and buying in fully prepared convenience options.”
Launches of bakery ingredients and mixes recorded by Innova Market Insights rose to well over 5,000 globally in the 12 months to the end of March 2014, accounting for over 14.5 per cent of total bakery introductions over the same period, up from less than 10 per cent five years previously.
In Australia, ingredients and mixes accounted for over 30 per cent of total bakery launches, ahead of the US with over 22 per cent, the UK with over 20 per cent and Western Europe with over 15 per cent.
“This momentum will need to be maintained as companies seek to improve the accessibility of home baking and offer increasingly sophisticated and value-added innovations and novelties,” Williams says.
“There has been a growing focus on premium products, including chef-endorsed lines, new formats such as liquid mixes, ready-to-use packs, and more complex and sophisticated decorative options, as well as a whole range of character-licensed products for the children’s market.”
