Despite its growth rate of 20% a year, olive oil accounts for less than 10% of the market, as Romanian consumers still prefer cheaper products. However, olive oil sales are expected to keep growing because Romanian consumers started to pay attention to what they eat.
“The sunflower oil and margarine markets have been going down in the past few years because Romanians have been paying more and more attention to what they eat and shifting to products regarded as healthier, such as olive oil,” a top executive in the oil and fats industry says.
Consumption of margarine is also down because consumers have more breakfast options to choose from, so they eat more cereals, yogurt and other dairy products, the executive added.
On an oil and fats market estimated at RON2.3 billion in 2015, total consumption of oil, margarine, butter and other products has either increased or decreased depending on the segment.
Although sunflower oil dominates the market with sales of RON1.3 billion or 60% of the total, consumption is slightly down.
A segment that has been growing besides olive oil is butter, which saw 25% growth in 2013-2015, according to ZF’s calculations based on market research company Euromonitor data.
The leading actors of the oil and fats market are Bunge, Expur and Unilever. Unilever operates only on the margarine market with its Rama and Delma brands, each of which accounting for almost 5%. Expur and Bunge Romania account for 28% of the vegetable oil market, each of which with an overall 14% market share. The best-selling brand is Expur’s Untdelemn de la Bunica, 7.5% market share followed by Bunge’s Floriol and Unisol, 6.2% and 5.1% market share. Next in the ranking are Prutul, Ardealul and Argus.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)