Romanian bakers expect that people will eat over eight million traditional cakes called cozonaci during the winter holidays as the VAT cut on food from 24% to 9% has pushed up the demand for food.

Cozonac is a Romanian and Bulgarian sweet bread somewhat similar to the Italian Panettone and represents an important part of the Christmas dinner for many Romanians.

Last year, local bakers prepared 7.3 million cozonaci. However, they are planning to increase the production this year up to 8.1 million cakes as more people in Romania but also from abroad want to include the sweet bread on their Christmas menu.

“We must be realistic, the cozonac is cheaper this year by 12% due to VAT cut from 24 to 9%,” said Aurel Popescu, president of Rompan, the employers' association in the bakery industry.

The exports of Romanian cozonaci to Germany, UK or the Scandinavian countries have increased, but the highest exports go to the countries that have large communities of Romanians, such as Italy and Spain, Popescu added.

The Romanian bakers have won the war with the “imported cozonac”, as over 80% of the Romanian consumers prefer the traditional cozonaci at the expense of imported ones, Popescu said.

Many companies choose to buy imported cozonaci because their shelf life is longer, and they are offered as Christmas presents to employees. Individuals, however, favor Romanian cozonaci and bread.

The imported cakes have different aromas, but Romanians stick to the traditional cozonac with walnuts and cocoa.

Local producers have registered over 70 traditional cozonac recipes at the Agriculture Ministry so far.

Although Romanians see the cozonac as a traditional cake, it is actually quite popular in the entire region. It can be found in Bulgaria, where it is called kozunak, Moldova Republic, as well as in other southeastern European countries.

Regardless of the region, the dough is similar throughout the country; a plain sweet bread made from flour, eggs, milk, butter, sugar and salt.

The cozonac was the sweet chosen to represent Romania in the Café Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the European Union, on Europe Day 2006.

Christmas menu in Romania: 7.3 mln ‘cozonac’ cakes, 1.5 mln pigs and 160 mln eggs

Diana Mesesan, diana@romania-insider.com