The pastry chefs are smiling. The year 2022 was marked in France by a growth in sales that had not been observed for a long time. The turnover of the sector has increased, in a context of inflation, by 14% to 1,455 million euros, according to data from the French pastry chefs union revealed this Wednesday by the LSA newspaper.
Last year almost 140,000 tons of candies, lollipops and other sweets were sold in France, well above what traders were selling before the Covid crisis. Even chewing gum, whose sales had been falling for more than ten years, closed 2022 with slight growth compared to 2021. This year the rebound in confectionery continues, with growth (in volume, without chewing gum) of 3.6% in the 1st room.
The Halloween effect grows
Three reasons explain this rebound. The first is arithmetic. With what is called a base effect. Sales growth follows the decline attributable to the Covid pandemic. In 2020, closed cinemas and banned birthday parties were consumption opportunities from which pastry chefs no longer benefited.
There is also the fact that more and more children are celebrating Halloween by imitating little Americans. Dressing up and going around houses, apartments, the neighborhood to ask for sweets is gradually becoming a necessity in French families.
With inflation, sweets are preferred over chocolate
The third reason for the rise is more banally economic: the price of chocolate, which experienced a strong rebound last year. When buying we compare prices and, although the rise in the price of sugar had an inflationary effect on that of sweets, jelly bears seem more affordable than their older chocolate brothers or even a simple tablet. .
Even parents are more tempted by these cocoa candy substitute products. Sales of regional specialties such as calissons and nougats increased considerably: +17.7% in volume at the end of the first quarter for the Aix-en-Provence specialty and almost 15% better for that of Montelimar.
Source: BFM TV
