Classic or without candied fruit, with icing or chocolate, vegan or light; and again for Sardinian palates with spiny artichoke, pompia, vernaccia, gioddu (yogurt), myrtle, quince, abbardente, orange or mandarin: even in Sardinia , whatever the palate, the artisanal panettone is always a must during the Christmas period . And it beats by far, in terms of preferences and according to a research carried out by Nielsen for the company Csm Bakery, the industrial one.

The artisanal version of the well-known popular sweet represents 52% of the total value of the sector. In Italy, according to the forecasts of the Study Office of Confartigianato Imprese Sardegna, over 50 million pieces (more than 26,000 tons) will be sold for over 195 million euros, despite the post-covid and energy and economic crisis, with a boom of growth of 19.5% compared to the same period last year.

«For some time now, more and more consumers have been going crazy for artisan panettone - comments Marco Rau , Delegate of Confartigianato Sardinia for food - not only in Sardinia or in the rest of Italy but also in the rest of the world such as for example in the United States where it has become a real 'obsession', with Italian bakers and pastry chefs ready to do battle to get closer to the "perfect tastes" and to satisfy every type of palate. Therefore, an interesting business also for small food companies in Sardinia ».

On the production and sale of panettone, pandoro and all the other typical Christmas sweets, however, both energy and inflation on the products used for making bread and pasta weighed heavily. According to the analysis of the Study Office of Confartigianato Sardegna, which reworked the result of a UnionCamere survey, the latest data say that flour increased by 33.8% between October-November 2021 and October-November this year , EVO oil grew by 29% , olive oil by 43.6%, various seeds by 16.6%, butter by 23.5% and sugar by 19.4% .

«Despite all this, the was - continues Rau - customers are well aware that for at least 5-6 years our prices have practically remained unchanged and that we have self-assessed and we have made sacrifices in this very long period. But we cannot go on with this situation of continuous penalization of the sector».