Abstract:

The manufacture of bread and bakery - pastry products represents an important sector of activity within the national economy, generating profit and assuring a high number of jobs for the local population. Romania has tradition in bread-making and bakery technology, the growing of cereals being entwined with the history of the Romanian people on these territories. The paper forwards an analysis of the bakery products market in Romania, the assessment of the Romanian bread consumer’s profile and of the trends exhibited by the population’s consumption. The information extracted from the international or domestic databases were processed with statistic methods, graphically interpreted and analysed. The evaluation of the concentration degree of the industry units was made by means of the Gini Struck Method. The investigations conducted revealed a high consumption of bread in Romania, with a slight tendency of decrease in the past years. There is no culture of quality from the part of processing manufacturers, nor a sufficient education of consumers meant to reduce the number of non-compliant bakery products. The industry shows a high degree of concentration, proved by high values of the Gini Struck Index.