Fedima is the European federation of manufacturers and suppliers of ingredients to the bakery, confectionery, and patisserie industries.
Fedima’s members are national associations in 13 European countries and represent around 200 companies across Europe, meaning that it represents the interests of more than 20,000 direct employees across Europe.
To shape a favourable environment to ensure a sustainable and innovative bakery sector
To be the European bakery ingredients platform to support and grow the bread and pastry market
Fedima engages at EU level on relevant policy issues relating to the bakery and pastry ingredients industry. As an association, it aims to ensure its members’ needs are heard at policy making level, ensure they have access to a single European market, and facilitate their business activities within the European Union.
Founded over 50 years ago, Fedima continues to contribute to the growth of the market by engaging with decision-makers to help shape sustainable regulation and public policies. In the context of increased interest by consumers in what food products are made of and how they are made, Fedima has also focused its efforts on informing the public about baked goods products’ ingredients. Furthermore, Fedima responds to specific topics and issues that take place and works to provide clear, credible responses to market or political challenges, establishing its position on the European stage.
Alongside its work, Fedima is also a part of several groups which aim to address specific issues in the wider industry. By working alongside other associations and industry players, Fedima can expand its position in the sector and provide valuable contribution to discussions and decisions on topics of common interest. Fedima is a member of FoodDrinkEurope, actively participating in their meetings and events. Fedima is also a partner in the Bread Initiative, a roundtable of organisations that represent the craft and industrial bakers, the milling sector, and yeast manufacturers. Furthermore, to support its sustainability actions, Fedima is part of the European Sustainable Palm Oil Advocacy Group (ESPOAG). Last but not least, our federation also addresses circular economy as part of the Molasses Alliance.
To actively support its members, Fedima takes decisive action in four fields:
Gathering and sharing data and information about Fedima’s market and the principal categories of interest, with the aim of better understanding any developments in the sector.
Becoming a key knowledge partner for regulatory bodies, offering positions on main policy areas.
Promoting Fedima’s position in the value chain and establishing connections across the industry.
Increasing internal and external awareness of activities, expanding influence in relevant sectors, and working towards being a leader in the industry.
Fedima works to address multiple interrelated subjects of interest, with the ultimate aim of further developing trust and reputation, increasing stakeholder engagement and member participation in relevant areas, and establishing the association as a thought leader in the sector.
The association’s work is organised into five overarching workstreams:
This multi-faceted structure helps Fedima maintain consistent activity on a variety of topics at the same time and drive forward the federation’s priorities.
The General Assembly is the highest governing body composed of all 13 national associations. The General Assembly can bring modifications to Fedima’s Statutes and approves the annual budget of the association. In addition, it elects a Board of 11 people, including the President.
The Board is the strategic leadership and management body, composed of elected representatives from member associations and companies, elected for a 2-year period and supervised by the President of Fedima. All committees report directly to the Board.
The Secretaries-General Committee acts in an advisory capacity to the Board. It provides a forum for exchange between Fedima and its member associations to develop and implement a coordinated strategy on key issues and exchange best practices.
The Advisory Committee consists of CEOs of companies in the sector, which are, through their subsidiaries, present in at least one-third of Fedima’s national associations. These companies provide an additional financial contribution to Fedima’s annual budget. The Advisory Committee advises the Board on the establishment of the strategic objectives of the federation.
The Taskforce consists of five workstreams, represented by a senior expert and assisted by the Secretariat. Each workstream reports directly to the Board. These five interdisciplinary workstreams work alongside each other to drive forward the work of Fedima and expand the association’s reach and influence both internally and externally.
The Secretariat works hand in hand with the taskforce and is responsible for the technical work and the organisation of internal and external meetings. It has a proactive approach to laying the groundwork for each expert group and Committee, and facilitating the progress towards Fedima’s ongoing vision.
The five workstreams of the association are guided by an ambitious strategy to approach the opportunities and challenges facing Fedima. The work is structured around and by a taskforce. It aims to strengthen Fedima’s position in the EU political landscape and ensure a sustainable bakery and pastry industry. In a work programme covering 12 months, from January 2021 to December 2021, the Secretariat focuses on building a solid foundation to enable the association to reach its long-term vision. Every year, the association’s strategy is reviewed and adjusted according to Fedima's and the industry’s needs and priorities and to changing realities in the societal and political sphere.
Ensure a positive regulatory framework that allows the industry to grow
Learn moreEstablish a solid and representative association, streamlining communication with and between members
Learn moreAlign regulatory and policy approaches to defend the interests of the sector
Learn moreIdentify sustainability concepts and projects to help build a responsible bakery ingredients industry and meet the Sustainable Development Goals
Learn moreSupport and grow the bread and pastry market, and communicate the work of the association
Learn moreThe bakery ingredient sector is impacted by EU policies and regulations in multiple ways, from food quality to labelling, to workers’ safety and consumers’ information. As the representative body for the European bakery ingredient sector, Fedima aims to positively contribute to the achievement of high food safety standards and the protection of workers, whilst promoting the highest level of transparency towards customers and consumers. Advocacy and coalition building play a crucial part in achieving this in a meaningful way. With that in mind, Fedima has built strategic networks and coalitions, including food industry federations, ingredients’ trade associations, and ongoing contact with European institutions and media.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the businesses we represent, especially small and medium enterprises. At Fedima, we have been working closely with our members to address challenges. We closely monitored the evolution of the crisis and have implemented advocacy and communications activities to support the sector. Principal activities have included:
The strength of a federation lies in the sense of community and collaboration between its members. When the building of relationships could not occur in person, the Fedima Secretariat focused its energies on finding other ways for Fedima’s members to meet, interact, and share views and perspectives. Similarly, Fedima continues to strive for open and regular communication between the association itself and its members.
The Fedima Community aims to serve as a forum to bring together members to share perspectives on the public policy and communications actions being worked towards by the committees and the Secretariat. This allows for the creation of a consistent and aligned approach to policy issues and strategy building, which considers the needs of the diverse national realities. Fedima’s effectiveness at the European level, through its capacity to strengthen the industry's voice in the EU decision-making process, depends upon a deep level of cooperation and coordination with its member associations. Thus, creating a strong and coherent Fedima Community of national associations is crucial, as is enabling equal representation of these associations across the discussions and activities that take place at Fedima level.
In light of the difficulties of meeting in person this year, Fedima’s Association Manager, Isabelle De Vinck, focused on creating smooth digital horizontal and vertical lines of dialogue between national associations to solidify a greater sense of community. This took the form of online meetings between Secretaries-General and between the Secretaries-General and Fedima Committees, and several CEO Roundtables to enable company-level leaders to meet and have discussions on specific topics.
The Technical Committee follows all policy and regulatory developments in food safety, labelling, and workers’ safety. The Committee is organised into Expert Groups, each providing expertise on specific topics. The Committee, led by Sofia Morais, aims to provide a platform for members to exchange on their local technical realities and the EU-level discussions and share best practices and information on relevant topics. In the case of product safety concerns, the Fedima Technical Commmitee is also an important forum to share concerns and coordinate action when needed. Indeed, over the past year, Fedima has worked to consolidate an Incident Management Group which can deal with such situations and act efficiently and appropriately.
The Expert Groups structure of the Committee provides members with thematic forums to reflect on and discuss ongoing and future developments relevant to the sector. It is defined by a flexible number of Expert Groups, each with a broad and equally adaptable scope that meet regularly, allowing for discussion and addressing arising topics of interest for members in a relevant and timely manner. This enables a broad yet precise overview of developments impacting the sector.
Meeting with other associations is essential to strengthen ties across the sector, share intelligence, and exchange perspectives. Fedima is part of FoodDrinkEurope and actively contributes to the work of the association. We partner with other associations such as AIBI and CAOBISCO, among others, to establish whether we can create joint positions, hear about how issues impact other sectors, and coordinate a joint sector response in the form of letters or statements.
We provide members with papers on specific topics of interest to them and the wider industry to give to members a deeper understanding of various issues. Recently, we have developed an external paper on front-of-pack nutrition labelling, as well as internal papers for our members on vegan and vegetarian labelling, and the federation’s understanding of sourdough, and we are developing further papers on other topics such as wholegrain or functional ingredients.
Fedima strives to provide its members with easily accessible and adapted information and content => and has thus consolidated the Webinars (Amfep and Fedima) on the safe handling of enzymes in the bakery industry into one, which will be translated and will be voiced-over into the five languages for which our national associations expressed an interest: French, Spanish, German, Romanian, and Turkish. Building on Fedima members’ expertise and developed papers, Fedima organised a webinar on sourdough. This allowed members to get a dynamic and consolidated view of the EU and local situation through active participation and the opportunity to address questions with a larger audience.
Fedima started an investigation in collaboration with FoBiG (Forschungs- und Bearatungsinstitut Gefahrstoffe GmbH) to protect workers' health, on the possible effects of sourdough on operators. The research focused on skin and eye damage. The final report documented the classification results according to the CLP Regulation, and stated a recommendation for a future classification strategy for sourdough. Fedima will also provide its members with a reviewed guidance on the CLP Regulation, considering the most recent amendments to the legislation.
The Sustainability Committee is the newest addition to Fedima’s workstreams. Created in 2020 after the General Assembly had decided in 2019, it reflects the bakery sector’s commitment to sustainable development. It is composed of representatives of the Advisory Committee’s companies and National Associations, and is chaired by Jean-Philippe Michaux.
The main aim of the Sustainability Committee is to serve as a platform for exchanging ideas and best practices on sustainability, as well as evaluating and monitoring the actions and commitments undertaken by the sector. Members of the Committee decided on 6 main priorities (building blocks) to focus on:
Sustainability is a horizontal and cross-cutting issue. Since it first gathered in January 2020, the Sustainability Committee has been working alongside other Fedima committees, national associations, and European actors such as FoodDrinkEurope.
Sustainability Data Collection: During the summer of 2021, Fedima launched a Sustainability Data Collection exercise to gain better insights into the sustainable development of the industry and apply a benchmark allowing companies to compare and apply best practices. In addition, the Sustainbability Data Collection will help support Fedima’s statements and positions with numbers and facts, strengthening the advocacy vis-à-vis the EU and allowing Fedima to positively highlight the efforts made by the bakery ingredients industry towards sustainability. This project is still ongoing and will be finalised by the end of 2021.
Sustainability Position Paper: this paper presents the sustainability commitments that Fedima and our members are working towards, aiming to build a common ground from which the sector can continue improving day by day.
Creation of a Packaging Expert taskforce: Created in spring 2021, this taskforce gathers experts in packaging to pull resources to foster change in the industry, with suppliers and with decision-makers, to improve the recyclability of packaging in a circular economy model.
Participation in policy-making discussions around the EU Farm to Fork Strategy: stakeholder consultation on green claims and Fedima position paper on nutrition labelling.
Exchanges with responsible sourcing certification organisation (Rainforest Alliance, RSPO) on cross-cutting sector-wide issues.
The Marketing and Communications Committee ensures that Fedima’s ongoing work and activities are communicated both internally, among members, and externally, to policymakers, stakeholders, and industry players. Its Chair, Thomas Lesaffre, leads the Committee, which aims to help Fedima promote the sector, support the bread and pastry market expand, improve end-consumers perception of the industry and its end products, and establish the association’s place as a reliable and essential player on the European bakery scene.
Over the past year, the Marketing and Communications Committee has focussed on providing valuable market insights and launching new research projects, sharing light-hearted but informative content with its members and external audiences, and building up new partnerships whilst consolidating existing ones.
In October 2020, Fedima launched a campaign to increase awareness around sourdough and encourage consumers to learn more about the ingredient and purchase sourdough-based products. The campaign based on a study Fedima commissioned to assess consumer understanding of sourdough showed a gap between industry and consumer understanding of the ingredient. The study took place in 2019 in nine European countries on over 5000 people. The campaign aimed to educate consumers on sourdough, providing information on its formation, taste and history, and value in baking traditions across Europe.
Fedima regularly gathers data to quantify the market size that Fedima represents and the importance of specific products such as bread and pastry or specific ingredients such as yeast or sourdough. This enables Fedima to have sharp insights into the trends in the market that we represent and helps inform our communications and policy outreach efforts with data. This year, Fedima commissioned research into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector, provided members with in-depth data on the topic, and organised a webinar to share the results and enable a discussion on the future of the sector. Fedima has launched a study into consumer behaviour regarding pastry, and plans to launch a campaign on the topic in the coming year.
This year, Fedima partnered with Media Energy Limited, publishers of the Baking Europe quarterly magazine, to create the inaugural European Baking Ingredients Market Report 2021. Scheduled for publication in September 2021, the publication will be a high-status, sustainably produced, printed and digital report aiming to gather the views of thought leaders in the industry and provide valuable insights on the sector.
Intending to ensure that members remain informed about Fedima’s activities over the year, Fedima has a monthly newsletter aimed explicitly at its membership. The newsletter provides the opportunity for members to stay informed on the various workstreams' ongoing activities, be aware of the most important upcoming dates, and share their own successes or news with their fellow members.
The companies we represent generate a turnover of over 5 billion EUR per year, hence contributing to the economic development of European countries. Overall, companies represented by our members employ nearly 24,000 people across Europe.
Number of employees of the companies represented by Fedima and the national associations
*2018/2019 data
The type of bakeries represented by our members largely vary between national associations. While our Dutch, Austrian, Belgian and British associations represent over 60% industrial bakeries, the Italian, Greek and Polish association mostly account for artisanal bakeries. The German association represents various types of bakeries, including artisanal and industrial bakeries, which account for 60% of their total membership.
Fedima | 5,100 |
---|---|
BZV | 1,600 |
GIDABIL | 0.6* |
ABIM | < 0.4 |
SYFAB | 0.3* |
NEBAFA | 0.3* |
ARGE | 0.1* |
UNIFA | < 0.2* |
ANCIPA | > 0.1 |
ASSITOL | > 0.1* |
FEDIMA Hellas | > 0.1* |
FEDIMA Romania | > 0.1 |
ASPRIME | < 0.1 |
FEDIMA Polska | < 1.1* |
Turnover generated by companies represented by FEDIMA (EUR billion)
*2018/2019 data
Market share by type of bakery (%)
ANCIPA / GIDABIL: N.A.*2018/2019 data
A Board is elected for a 2-year period.
New elections will take place in 2021.
Chair: Sofia MORAIS (Puratos)
There are 5 active Expert Groups (EGs):Sara AUTTON (ABIM), Antoine CHARDON (SYFAB), Carine CHINCHOLLE (BZV), Christof CRONE (BZV), Igor CALDERARI (ASSITOL), Nela DRAGOMIR (Fedima Romania), Massimo FUSARI (ASSITOL), Daniela HOBEN (BZV), Jaap KALKMAN (NEBAFA), Mirjam KERCKHAERT (NEBAFA), Thomas KUNTE (BZV), Sophie LION (SYFAB), Matteo NEGRONI (ASSITOL), Indika PATHIRATHNA (ABIM), Karaman SERTOGLU (GIDABIL), Clara SUNYOL (ASPRIME), Angèle VAN DEN HEUVEL (NEBAFA), Maarten VAN OORT (NEBAFA)
Chair: Thomas LESAFFRE (Lesaffre)
Chair: Jean-Philippe MICHAUX (Puratos)
Federation of the European Manufacturers and Suppliers of ingredients to the Bakery, Confectionery and Patisserie Industries ASBL
Rue de la Loi 38, boite 5 - 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Tel.: +32 2 895 43 29 - Email: secretariat@fedima.org
Website: www.fedima.org
EU Transparency register : 904362515084-73
Annual Report 2021 pdf version