Confectionery Industry

a branch of the food industry producing confectionery in specialized factories and in sections of large bread bakeries, canneries, and food combines.

Cakes were produced by Russian cottage industry in the 15th and 16th centuries. In the second half of the 18th century confectionery shops were established in St. Petersburg and Moscow, making pastry, nougat, candy, marzipan, and chocolate beverages. The growth of cities and industrial centers led to the development of factory production of confections during the second half of the 19th century. In 1913 there were 142 registered confectionery establishments in Russia, employing 17,405 workers and producing 70,100 tons of various confectionery products. The total output for 1913, including cottage industry production, was 125,000 tons. The most famous prerevolutionary confectionery establishments were the Einem (today Red October), with a 1913 output of 7,100 tons, the Siu (now Bolshevik), producing 5,400 tons in 1913, Abrikosov’s factory in Moscow (3,700 tons), and Georges Borman’s factories in St. Petersburg and Kharkov.

Production in these relatively large enterprises was partly based on cottage-industry techniques and used direct fire stoves, hand presses, and open vats stirred by hand. Confections were hand wrapped. The working day lasted from ten to 12 hours, and sanitary conditions were poor. The confectionery industry was concentrated in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kharkov, and Odessa.

The confectionery industry expanded rapidly in the USSR under the prewar five-year plans (1929–40), when 50 new confec-Table 1. Food value of selected confectionery

factories were built in various cities and most of the old establishments were renovated. Vacuum pans for making caramels and fillings were introduced, as well as assembly-line molding machines. Machines for whipping fondant, for molding, coating with chocolate, and wrapping candies, and for stamping cookies were widely used. Mechanization greatly increased output, and in 1940 the Moscow Red October Factory produced 55,400 tons of confectionery products and the Bolshevik Factory, 54,300 tons.

Between 1946 and 1970 about 60 confectionery factories were built, chiefly of the general type, including 25 establishments each with a total annual output of between 10,000 and 25,000 tons. In 1969 one of the largest chocolate factories in Europe opened in Kuibyshev, processing 16,000 tons of cacao beans annually. The expansion of existing confectionery factories and the construction of new ones resulted in a greater share of overall output at large factories. In 1972 there were nine factories each producing more than 40,000 tons of confectionery products: Red October, Bolshevik, Babaev, and Rot Front in Moscow, Samoilova and Number One in Leningrad, Karl Marx in Kiev, Svetoch in L’vov, and Spartacus in Gomel’.

Today the confectionery industry is highly mechanized. By 1971, there were more than 500 completely mechanized continuous-flow production lines and units for making caramels, 400 for making cookies, 700 for making candy and toffee, and more than 10,000 high-speed automated wrapping and packing machines. The production of confectionery in the USSR is described in Table 1, and the considerable growth of the industry in all the Union republics is shown in Table 2.

During the ninth five-year plan (1971–75) the production of high-quality confectionery continued to expand. Particular attention was given to improving the assortment and increasing the supply of confectionery in small packages and with attractive wrappings.

The main trends of the scientific and technological progress in the confectionery industry are: development and introduction of new technical processes, overall mechanization and automation of production, and mechanization of loading and unloading and transportation and storage.

The confectionery industry is developing successfully in other socialist countries as well. The per capita production of confectionery products in Bulgaria was 13.2 kg (1970); in Hungary, 7.5 kg (1970); in the German Democratic Republic, 9 kg (1971); in Poland, 6.9 kg (1971); and in Czechoslovakia, 12.6 kg (1970).

In the capitalist countries the production of sugar confectionery is most extensively developed in the USA, where per capita production in 1970 was about 10 kg, and in Great Britain (12 kg). These countries also produce large quantities of such flour confectionery products as biscuits and crackers.