Serbia doubles import of bread – Baked goods worth EUR 6.8 million delivered during 2019

In the past year, Serbia has more than doubled the import of bread and baked goods, with around 6,000 tons of fresh bread, baked goods and toast worth EUR 6.8 million delivered to the market in 2019, Politika writes.

As the daily writes, the goods were mostly imported from Romania, Germany, Bulgaria and even Croatia, whose own import of bread has considerably increased since its joining the EU, according to the published data.

– It sounds incredible, because most consumers don't know that they are being sold warm baked goods which previously arrived to the market frozen, sometimes from thousands of kilometers away – the daily writes.

They add that the goods are only slightly additionally baked at supermarkets and baked goods stores and then sold as fresh.

Those familiar with the market explain that “parbaking”, involving partial baking and freezing for transport, is increasingly replacing traditional baking.

This reduces the production costs, as it means that baked goods of identical quality can be delivered at any moment, removing the need for highly qualified bakers, because “each employee can bake almost fully prepared products and put them on the shelf”.

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