by yaser khanbefore sugar was discovered honey was perhaps one of the oldest sweetening ingredients in the world while the process of extracting honey from beehives today has been secured with many safeguards way back in history it would usually be accompanied by some stinging pain only to lead to liquid gold the extracted honey will then be put to various use including as a sweetening agent in dishes and confectioneries fast forward to the present day the whole confectionery industry has been revolutionized and is operating at a scale never imagined however in the past two years like most other sectors including the fmcg industry the confectionery sector has experienced the stinging pain of the global pandemic the fmcg sector amidst the pandemic being one of the most consumed and gifted items the confectionery sector is a significant subset of the usd 110 billion indian fmcg industry consequently it was also impacted by an acute 19 decline of the fmcg sector during the first wave of the pandemic the fmcg sector quickly revived to script a 1 growth in the third quarter of the calendar year post unlocking of the economy and ending the year with a 7 q4 growth while india faced a debilitating impact during the second wave the fmcg sector grew by over 9 in march 2021 quarter as per a nielsen report advt however the fmcg growth did not necessarily reflect the growth of the confectionery industry being a superset of a diversified product range the fmcg growth momentum is largely believed to be driven by priority buying which majorly includes the essentials staples personal care so on and so forth while the sector leveraged both traditional trade and ecommerce channels for doortodoor reach challenges faced by the confectionery industry contrarily in the same period the indian confectionery industry which is estimated to be over 15 billion has had to deal with a range of challenges the indian confectionery market is highly disorganized and comprises a huge number of confectioners operating at the local level including many offering services to key restaurants from homes and owning small shops in smaller markets in various localities this makes ascertaining the extent of impact highly difficult consequently with the pandemic limiting mobility and hitting the fb industry they were the worst hit furthermore the sector is largely associated with celebration luxury and happiness at the time of the pandemic especially with the second wave when the majority of families were distressed with health and financial challenges and events and celebrations were happening at a highly narrow and limited scale the consumption of confectioneries has been on the lower side ever since 2020 lockdown this prolonged slump over the past 15 months has impacted the sector adversely several other challenges including supply chain and logistics challenges continued uncertainties pertaining to the opening of markets fb events and hospitality industry longterm financial impact and dipping purchasing power of consumers continue to affect the sector advt the key learnings despite the