Last year’s gingerbread record will not be broken this year and not even equaled. That is the conclusion of market leader Van Delft Biscuits. Due to the corona crisis, we are doing more targeted shopping and we are more cautious with impulse purchases, such as from herb nuts, as they are officially called.
“The panache is a bit off”, says Gert-Jan Blom of Van Delft, where seven out of ten gingerbread nuts come from. Last year, a record number of seven billion nuts was consumed in the Netherlands. “We will not make it this year.”
In recent years, the consumption of gingerbread cookies has grown steadily. “That was because of the Zwarte Piet discussion”, says Blom. “As a result, there was a lot of attention for Sinterklaas and that spilled over to the demand for spice nuts. Negative attention is also attention.”
The gingerbread sales came to 35 million euros last year, 5 percent more than a year earlier. The vast majority of this is obtained in supermarkets. “The supermarket turnover was 29 million euros, the other turnover comes from businesses such as HEMA and Kruidvat,” says Blom.
The chocolate variety is on the rise
The largest gingerbread producer thinks that the turnover will remain reasonably stable this year and that is because we increasingly buy a spice nut with a chocolate coating around it. “And they are three times as expensive.” A few years ago, three out of ten spice nuts were a chocolate variety, now that is half. “As a result, the total value has also increased.”
The gingerbread season runs from the beginning of September to December 5, the spice nut simply belongs to a specific season. “You can also eat an Easter egg in the summer, but that is less attractive,” explains Blom. “The spice nut belongs to this period, the inclement weather.”
The pepper nut is also a cuddly product, according to the commercial man of Van Delft Biscuits. “With the ginger nuts you never hear anyone about the calories, that is different with our other products.”
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