Virgil Pavel, the vice-president of ROMPAN, believes that negative publicity has led to a decrease in bread consumption, so the association will start a campaign to promote bread consumption from next year, "for people to understand what a balanced consumption of the product means" . The statement was made at the EUROPAN conference, which took place between June 11 and 12 in Bucharest.
"There is a lot of negative publicity, a lot of unverified information that leads to untrue opinions about the consumption of bread, that it is carcinogenic, that health problems occur and others", Virgil Pavel also said. The vice-president of ROMPAN emphasized that consumption habits are constantly changing, which is why the trend at the level of the European Union is to decrease the consumption of bread. On the other hand, the consumption of pastries is increasing, especially at work, according to the association's data.
Virgil Pavel believes that the list of challenges facing the bakery and milling industry, in addition to the labor crisis, is completed by increases in energy and fuels, tax evasion, inequities in negotiations between manufacturers and retailers. According to ROMPAN data, in Romania, the average annual consumption of cereals (bread, pasta, pastries, flour, semolina) is between 120-125 kg per capita, compared to 145 kg, as it was a few years ago . "New products are appearing that were not used until now and that lead to a decrease in bread consumption, such as breakfast or flour pasta. Quite a lot of pastry is consumed at work and then, naturally, the consumption of bread decreases, but at the same time the total consumption of cereals per capita decreases", Virgil Popa also said. On the other hand, the bakery and milling industry in Romania has benefited in the last 30 years from investments worth almost 800 million euros, becoming a strong competitor for the EU member states, with a tradition in the field.
