A little horseradish is good for everyone

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/2-3.

Tímea Szűcs-Bundik, dressing brand manager of Unilever Magyarország Kft.: “Following the pattern of the past few years, the dressing market continues to expand in value terms, but the volume decline typical of the category now seems to be moderating. The improving inflation situation in the second half of 2024 has been reflected in demand”.

Optimism with reservations

Rita Bazsó
marketing director
Univer Product

Last year’s Easter season met the expectations, says Rita Bazsó, marketing director of Univer Product Zrt:

“That period was characterised by moderate growth for wet condiments, sauces and grated horseradish. However, it is problematic that the raw material price of grated horseradish has increased significantly, which will entail higher finished product prices this Easter”.

 

Gábor Mika 
head of sales
KOCH’s Torma

Gábor Mika, head of sales at KOCH’s Torma Kft.:

“Easter 2024 brought a surge in demand for premium products. Despite the optimistic forecasts, the entire industry will face major challenges in an already price-sensitive Hungarian market in 2025, with falling demand due to inflation”.

Júlia Siróné Váradi
business development director
Tormaricum

Júlia Siróné Váradi, business development director of Tormaricum Kft.:

“One of the biggest lessons to learn in 2024 was that in the high season wholesale and retail actors adopted a pricing strategy for their private label products that resulted in significant market distortions towards the low price categories”.

Nóra Czugéber
brand manager
Lacikonyha Magyarország

Nóra Czugéber, senior brand manager of Lacikonyha Magyarország Kft.:

“2025 will also be challenging, but we are optimistic about the upcoming Easter season. People continue to prefer quality, tasty condiments on the festive table”.

Easter and garden parties go hand in hand

Unilever’s experience is that the positions of dressings are stable and consumers are noticeably returning to branded products.

Tímea Szűcs-Bundik
dressing brand manager
Unilever Hungary

Price promotions are the main drivers of purchasing decisions. The consumer basket has become bigger, going in the direction of family-sized products for the main sauces, but with flavoured sauces consumers are happy to choose more types of products with special flavours, in smaller size.

This year poses an exciting challenge to sauce makers: the exceptionally late Easter (20-21 April) coincides with the start of the barbecue season. This means that the essential sauces for the holiday and the special barbecue sauces for garden parties can play an equally important role in terms of both portfolio and in-store displaying.

In this period, Globus focuses on festive dishes with its well-known and loved ketchup-mustard-mayonnaise portfolio, while for the barbecue season the Hellmann’s brand will offer a large selection of sauces.

Consumers’ purchasing power has not yet fully recovered, so demand for products responding to modern needs is still limited

In a spicy mood

In the 2024 Easter season demand was the strongest for traditional and seasonal Univer products, e.g. mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, grated horseradish and horseradish with mayonnaise. As spicy flavours/sauces continue to be popular, the company is expanding its selection of hot, “Erős Pista” containing products this year. Demand for smaller products is stable, while there is also growing interest in practical and sustainable packaging solutions. Besides the classic flavours, spicy and more special variants such as wasabi or chilli flavoured horseradish are gaining ground in the grated horseradish segment.

Consumer demand hiked for small-sized KOCH’s grated horseradish products, while in the case of sauces bigger, more economical products tend to end up in shopping baskets. In 2024 KOCH’s Torma Kft.’s special flavoured variants performed very well, alongside its Value and Quality Award winner KOCH’s Table Horseradish and Creamy Horseradish products.

Promotional price levels in the market have improved, what increases consumer willingness

Classic and special

Easter is also important in the sense that in addition to the classic hot grated horseradish, consumers like to try new flavours and special products. For example the Ízmester brand of Lacikonyha Magyarország Kft. offers grated horseradish flavoured with blueberries, and the deli horseradish cream was popular last year, thanks to its light and tasty character. Besides horseradish, the company’s mustard offering was also popular. Last year they rolled out two new Ízmester product ranges: a selection of five flavours of large-format spice mixes in 80g or bigger size, and another range of three types of freeze-dried herbs (dill leaves, parsley, chives). This year sachet-format Ízmester spices and spice mixes will get a new, modern design and in many cases the products will also have new recipes.

As the raw material price of horseradish has increased significantly, finished product prices are forecast to be higher this Easter

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Tormaricum Kft. believes horseradish isn’t only a tradition, but can also be an innovation in modern Hungarian cuisine. With this in mind, they are planning online and offline campaigns to reposition horseradish, highlighting its versatility and gastronomic value. //