Germany loves dairy desserts

Germany’s taste for creamy dairy desserts is growing steadily, according to the country’s milk processors’ association (MIV). In line with a per capita rise in consumption of cream and cream products of 1.7% in 2009 (from 5.9 kg to six kilograms per year), cream dessert sales increased by 0.5% in 2009 compared with the previous year. But for the first four months of 2010 retail trend reporter Nielsen says sales of cream desserts have risen again – this time by two per cent.
This is not all good news though – for earnings in this sector have been badly eroded by supermarket price wars and actually fell by 2.3% for cream dessert products from January to end of April this year. Underlining the trend for luxury products in this line is a slump over the same period of 5-7% in sales for dairy desserts without cream, products that in any case only represent one tenth of the dairy dessert sales in Germany.
But where plenty of cream is added to interesting flavours in this luxury sector there seems to be no limit to sales growth. For instance the “Grand Dessert” line from Bavarian dairy Ehrmann, which includes a toffee-flavoured cream confection, claims a sales increase of 52% between 2008 and 2009, with the trend continuing to rise in the present year.