Ferrero wants a bite of biscuits and snacks segment

Ferrero Group is planning to expand its portfolio in China to include biscuits and snacks, after the Italian chocolate and confectionery company acquired Kellogg's biscuit brand Keebler and other snack brands in April.

"We want to make sure we have appropriate ingredients and recipe so that apart from responding to the needs and tastes of consumers, (the new products) will also stay in the market," said Mauro De Felip, general manager of Ferrero China, in an interview in Shanghai.

The country's chocolate confectionery market rebounded in 2018 after dipping in 2015 and Euromonitor International estimate chocolate confectionery market size in China to maintain modest growth and reach $3.65 billion by 2022.

De Felip said the company will take full advantage of the massive digital transformation taking place in China in order to grow share in the e-commerce business with online partners and traditional distributors.

He made the remarks as the company held its first-ever interactive exhibition in China last week showcasing its corporate social responsibility acts.

During the occasion, the company announced the launch of a new season of campus activities under the Kinder+Sport program at a larger scale, helping children change their sedentary way of life and encouraging them to develop an active lifestyle of regular exercises through the joy of moving.

As part of Ferrero's drive to attain sustainability for its raw materials, the 100 percent palm oil that Ferrero uses has been certified as sustainable by an international initiative called Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. The group also aims to achieve full traceability or sustainable certification for its primary raw materials including cocoa, hazelnut and refined cane sugar, by 2020.