Kochi: Across Kerala, the Christmas cakes are flying off the bakery shelves as expected. Bakers expect 20% rise in sales as this year draws to a close after a tepid 2021 and 2022 which were badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The sales are unlikely to be very high as big companies and organisations refrain from buying in bulk quantities and distributing cakes to employees and others. The export situation is also dull owing to the downturn that has gripped many economies.
The distribution of cakes during Christmas and New Year by banks and other business organisations has also come down drastically. The practice was to buy cakes on a large scale directly from the cake manufacturers at a lower rate.
The number of cakes bought by Infopark, Technopark and such companies to distribute to the techies has also reduced as more than 30 per cent of the staff strength still continue to work from home.
Likely sales
It is estimated that about 50 lakh kilogram of cake are sold through bakeries, supermarkets and general stores across the State. There are 22,000 bakeries in Kerala, of which some bakery chains sell up to 20,000 kg of cake during the Christmas season. In addition, there are about 4,000 individual bakers who specialies in cakes. Apart from that, there are small cake-baking units in houses and cottage industries.
The number of people who turned to bake as a hobby shot up during COVID times and this is reflected in rising sales.
Even if Rs 500 is taken as the average cost for a kilogram of cake, the value comes to Rs 250 crore for about half a crore kilogram of cake.
Several variants
Cake prices have increased, and so have flavours and variants in cakes.
While the cost of a regular plum cake ranges between Rs 400 to Rs 500 per kg, it costs Rs 600 to Rs 1,500 for special cakes with decorations. The demand is more for the new varieties. However, the shelf life for these special cakes is only 5 days.
Exports tepid
Kerala-style plum cakes are in demand overseas wherever expatriate Malayalis are based. Plum cakes baked in Kerala reach Europe, America, Australia and the Gulf countries among other parts of the globe. This year, owing to the recessionary trends in the West, the export orders for the cakes have gone down.
