Canada is a large exporter of bakery products to the United States (U.S.). Key exports include dough mixes, biscuits, pastries/cakes/desserts, breads, waffles, cookies, gingerbread, puddings, pies, and cereals.
The market for bakery products in the U.S. grew by 7.6% from 2005 to 2010, while the market for frozen bakery grew by 9.1%, and frozen desserts (not including ice cream) by 18.3%. Frozen desserts are expected to remain the fastest growing category from 2011 to 2016.
Bakery products can be broken down into three sub-categories: baked goods, biscuits, and breakfast cereals. Breads are the largest segment in the baked goods sub-category, followed by pastries and cakes. Unpackaged artisanal pastries and cakes currently sell more than packaged pastries and cakes, however, packaged bread sells more than unpackaged bread.
Many successful new bakery products being introduced into the U.S. market feature health claims or claims of higher quality. Many companies are introducing products with lower amounts of high-fructose corn syrup and sodium but higher amounts of fibre, and are using whole wheat more often. In fact, whole wheat bread outsold white bread in 2010.
Savoury biscuit volume sales are expected to grow from 2011 to 2016, however, volume sales of sweet biscuits, especially cookies, are expected to decline over the same time period. This can be attributed to the maturity of the sweet biscuit category, and the growing health and wellness trend among consumers.
Frozen bakery and frozen dessert products are expected to decline in volume sales from 2011 to 2016. However, both categories are expected to increase in sales value during the same time period.
