Tough times boost sales of potato chips and pastries

Even tough rapid price advance has seen a slump in food sales, some items are bought more frequently than before despite higher prices. Examples include potato chips, pastries, but also vegetables.
Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat reported Monday that while food sales are down overall in Finland, potato chips, pastries, pasta and plant-based fats are on the rise.
A similar tendency can be observed in Estonia. Kristjan Anderson, head of business development for the Selver chain of supermarkets, said that sales of eggs and Selver's own pastries have grown.
Martin Miido, head of communication for Coop supermarkets, said that potato chips and snacks in general are more popular in their stores.
The Scandinavian trend of offering healthier chips options is making its way to Estonia, including making sure products do not contain palm oil and are made of potatoes and not meal.
Miido added that people are also preferring sausage to ham to suggest that cheaper alternatives are becoming more popular in light of recent years' rapid price advance.
Premium and niche products sales are down, while discounted produce remains very popular.
Coop's representative also pointed to increased Estonian vegetable sales, such as cabbage, beets and rutabaga.
But Marilin Jürisson, head of purchasing for Rimi Estonia, said that their sales volumes have grown in most product categories.
"As an example, I can mention bakery products, which have seen a unit growth of nearly 30 percent. Additionally, the sales volumes of various dairy products have grown significantly, certainly aided by the reduction in sales prices due to the decrease in raw material costs," she said.
Jürisson said that sales of berries have shrunk by almost 40 percent.
Data from Statistics Estonia saw the sales revenue of food shops fall by 1 percent in October year-over-year.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski