Magazine: Home preservation of fruits and vegetables

Eszter Varga
trade marketing and category manager
Dr. Oetker Magyarország

The market of home preserving supplies is influenced by the weather: if conditions are normal and the fruit harvest is good, sales increase. According to Eszter Varga, trade marketing and category manager of Dr. Oetker Magyarország Élelmiszer Kft., jam fixes are the most popular – this segment represents nearly three quarters of the category. They are followed by preservatives and preserving sugar. Demand is on the rise for products which require the addition of less sugar. As regards retail channels, those shops are important in sales which are close to where people live.

Márta Galácz
managing director
KOTÁNYI Hungária

Márta Galácz, managing director of KOTÁNYI Hungária Kft. told our magazine that the home preserving of fruits and vegetables is slowly but steadily becoming trendy again. However, it must be added that this is only true for a small layer of society. All in all, this trend is already developing dynamically in Western Europe.

Petra Borsodi
product manager
Ed.Haas Hungaria

We learned from Petra Borsodi, product manager of Ed.Haas Hungaria Kft. that more and more consumers are visiting cookery schools and cook food from trendy recipes at home. Consequently, they are braver than before when it comes to trying special jams. Still, the biggest quantity of home-made jam is prepared from apricot.

Henrietta Csicselyné Biró
sales director
Thymos Hungária

Henrietta Csicselyné Biró, sales director of Thymos Hungária Kft. talked to us about her experience that demand is the biggest for the multipack variant of products. She stressed that shoppers pay special attention to getting some added value or benefitting from promotional prices.

What do shoppers want from home preserving products? Fast and comfortable use, and they also want them to be healthy. We learned from Ms Varga that in 2018 they come out with Dr. Oetker Jam Fix 4:1, with the help of which jams and marmalades with an exceptionally high fruit and very low sugar content can be made: to 1,000g of fruit only 250g of sugar needs to be added. The company has already been offering jam fixes for plum, apple and orange, and this spring they put Dr. Oetker Jam Fix for Apricot on the market. In 2018 jam fix and preserving sugar products got a new packaging, with useful tips for shoppers on the back of products. Consumers can also find lots of useful information at www.befozok.hu.

With its Horváth Rozi brand, KOTÁNYI wishes to be an active shaper of trends. This is the reason why on a new Horváth Rozi website – launched in May – new ideas are presented with the help of bloggers for those who want to make jams and pickles at home. Ms Galácz explained to us how important educating consumers is, as the young generations show much smaller demand for home preserving supplies than the generations of their parents and grandparents.

Ed.Haas Hungaria’s experience is that in the last 10 years the market has been going in the direction of gelling aid products that require much less sugar. From the company’s products demand is the biggest for Haas Quittin 3:1 gelling aid, while formerly Haas Quittin 2:1 was the flagship product – informed Ms Borsodi. Recently they introduced Haas Quittin Sugar Stop on the market: by using this fruits can be preserved without added sugar. All product information can be found at www.haas.hu.

Thymos Hungária Kft. informed our magazine that demand is constant for citric acid, which people like to use in making fruit syrup. As for gelling aid products, demand was great for them last year, when the fruit harvest was good. In 2016 preservatives used to make pickles were popular. Ms Csicselyné Biró reckons that when it comes to buying gelling aids, shoppers are looking for products made from natural ingredients, such as apple pectin. This year the company focuses on secondary product placement in shops, using displays, shelf ends and pallets as well. //