The future remains solid for the baking industry, according to European and Asia-Pacific reports on the bakery and cereals sectors published by GlobalData. For the period from 2016 to 2021, sales in North America are expected to rise 1.9% CAGR in volume growth. That compares with 1.2% for Western Europe, 2.8% for Eastern Europe, 3.2% for Latin America and 6.2% for the Asia-Pacific region. But just a word of caution on percentage growth: The baselines are very different.

When it comes to per-capita consumption of baked foods and cereal in 2016, Eastern Europe leads with 87 kg followed by Western Europe (74.8), North America (46.9), Latin America (42.0) and Asia-Pacific (5.9). China may be large and significantly growing, but sales in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region is a fraction of baked foods and cereal consumption in other parts of the world, noted Tom Vierhile, innovation insights director, GlobalData.

Cereal bars are the fastest-growing dollar and volume category among bakery and cereal products in Western Europe. The market is expected to grow at 4.6% CAGR for the 2016-21 period. Bread and rolls are the slowest performers at an expected 1.8% CAGR during this time frame. In Asia-Pacific, the cakes, pastries and sweet pies market is projected to surge 7.7% CAGR, with China leading the growth, according to GlobalData.

When it comes to iba 2018, IBIE 2019 and other international trade shows, look for a myriad of consumer trends and significant advances in technology to drive the world of baking way beyond the borders of years ago.