Panettone, the traditional Italian Christmas cake, has seen a significant surge in popularity across the UK, becoming a staple in festive offerings. Over the last few years retailers have reported that sales of panettone has outsold traditional Christmas puddings, with demand up as much as 40%.
But it’s not just for Christmas. This traditional Italian desert is seeing surprising growth across Europe where consumption is up 1.5% with pastry purchases now worth 11.4 billion euros – and much of it in the hotel sector.
The UK, France, and Germany are leading the consumption growth. According to Matteo Figura, Out of Home Market Expert and Foodservice Director at Circana Italy, “Leading the growth in consumption in the pastry sector are the United Kingdom, France and Germany.”
And chef’s are noting the rising demand too.
Luigi Biasetto, master pastry chef at AMPI academy explains, “Traditional Milanese panettone is already the most popular with our customers, but we foresee a +22% increase in pandoro sales.”
For Marta Boccanera, master pastry chef and vice-president of APEI it also an important market, “We expect a 10-15% increase in panettone sales and pandoro volumes to double, but pastry chefs are having to cope with the rising price of raw materials.”
Roberto Rinaldini, master pastry chef and member of Relais Dessert International said “The classic panettone represents 40% of our sales, our gourmet proposal, the Dante panettone, is also on the increase.”
It’s one of the reason that IEG – Italian Exhibition Group are expecting this years expo in January to be so popular and the Sigep show (January 18-22, 2025) is an opportunity to explore these trends further.
