Pizza Market at SIAB 2007

SIAB International Techno-Bake Exhibition – the International Bakery, Pastry, Confectionery, Fresh Pasta and Pizza Exhibition scheduled 5-9 May 2007 at VeronaFiere – is an event that over the years has established leadership among agro-food shows. Product quality, select visitors and services all make SIAB the national and international landmark for companies operating in sectors such as the technologies, raw materials and semi-finished goods used in the production of bread, pastry, pizza and fresh pasta.
 
SIAB presents products and innovations that, thanks to their excellence, have become symbols of “Made in Italy”.
 
A special focus, this year, will be on pizza and its market.
 
Data published by the Italian Public Business Federation (Fipe) suggest that current consumption in Italy per week stands at around 56 million pizzas – almost 3 billion pizzas/year.
The European Pizza Institute, however, indicates that pizzerias, particularly in Italy, have not been able to overcome the stagnation caused by the introduction of the Euro and the indiscriminate increases implemented by the sector during the currency conversion stage.
The pizzerias most affected by this downtrend in sales are particularly those that in the 1980-90s were most successful and generally “fully-booked” at weekends.
Innovation and innovative ideas today clash with the attitudes of people who, until now, have never needed to seek alternative solutions for success since the product always “sold in high quantities”.
Good and healthy pizzas with modern and innovative services are of course available and the true “success formula” in this sector but involve a minority – less than 5% of today’s pizza market.
Producers of raw materials are promoting “new” products intended to improve the quality of “pizza” products: yet, once again, very few people have really understood that this is the “way ahead”.
 
Equipment producers are developing new and innovative solutions but the sector is struggling to understand these ideas and in any case is reluctant to invest until the situation changes radically.
In this stagnant situation, the field is seeing a number of new concepts: large and small companies now propose “pizza dough” and pre-cooked pizza bases (fresh or frozen), round bases for plain pizzas or with tomato sauce.
Consumption of frozen pizzas through large-scale distribution for home consumption have by now overtaken, in terms of per-capita consumption, pizzas served in small business pizzerias.
Small business pizzerias, in turn, have cut their prices for classic and popular pizzas such as “margherita” and “marinara”: an approach that causes significant economic damages for such pizzerias that, in this way, merely cover the costs of raw materials, mixture and cooking but all too often “forget” the cost of the pizza-chef, the waiter and general expenses.
Worldwide, on the other hand, “pizza” is performing very well, especially in emerging countries such as China and India – since the product is genuine, economic and fast.
(Source: European Pizza Institute)