Ready-to-eat meal services predict a decline in purchasing power in 2025

Russia has predicted a decrease in purchasing power in 2025. This was told to Izvestia by analysts from the Dostaevsky company, having analyzed market trends. At the same time, experts predicted the growth in popularity of bakeries, small cafes offering affordable prices.

"The rise in raw material prices and inflation will continue at least until spring 2025. This will lead to an inevitable increase in prices for ready-to-eat food, on average on the market by 10-15%. It will also affect the decline in the purchasing power of the population, which will lead to a slowdown in the growth of the e-grocery and food delivery market," the company said.

At the same time, analysts noted that earlier both markets were growing quite aggressively, ahead of all possible trends and tendencies. The growth of online sales in the IV quarter of 2024 amounted to 26.8% year-on-year, the experts said. Last year in the same period, turnover growth was at 56.8%.

"With declining purchasing power, consumers will look for more affordable alternatives. The popularity of "at-home" formats is expected to grow - bakeries, small cafes offering affordable prices and fast service. In addition, companies operating in the ready-to-eat food market will be forced to look for ways to optimize costs and increase efficiency in order to remain competitive," analysts said.

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Yaroslav Svobodin, commercial director of food production Mr.Food (ready-to-eat cooking under Creative Kitchen and Cook Chart brands), also noted the rise in raw material prices.

"Until the end of the year, we do not plan to raise prices, leveling the growth of raw material costs at the expense of our own profitability. However, taking into account the current inflation rate, we realize that we will not be able to restrain the growth of prices for ready-made cooking on our own, so we do not exclude the possibility of raising prices in 2025," he told Izvestia.

According to him, the general price indexation in the market of cookery took place in August-September, for some groups of raw materials amounted to 35%.

"Frequent fluctuations can have a negative impact on purchasing power, so we will make every effort to avoid price increases for products or at least minimize indexation," - said the representative of the business.

Earlier, on December 12, it was reported that every fifth woman (17%) in a relationship pays for the delivery of meals from restaurants themselves. Another 18% note that it is mostly done by men. At the same time, 46% of surveyed men claim that they pay for food delivery for two, and only 2% order at the expense of the girl. This is stated in the results of the study of the service "Cooper" and media holding Rambler & Co. For a joint dinner 16% of Russians choose fast food, 15% - Asian dishes, and 14% - Russian cuisine.