Less than two years ago, the Kuldīga resident Anda Pileniece began attending baking classes. Friends and colleagues encouraged her to start selling products. And now, since February this year, Pileniece has been an official home producer – making pastries, namely cakes, tarts, macarons, and cupcakes.
“Maybe I would have started doing it earlier, the Food and Veterinary Service and the State Revenue Service seemed like the monster, but no, I was pleasantly surprised, it was pretty easy and coherent, there was a registration pretty quickly, I was even given advice by [the responsible authorities] on how best,” Pileniece told Latvian Radio.
She said home production is currently like an extra job or hobby for her as, in parallel, she continues to develop her skills as a baker on various training courses, as well as working in her main job. As a result, orders are accepted as much as she can or want, and no financial or other difficulties are encountered.
“For now, thankfully, for those products that I really need, prices haven't gone up too much, well a little bit. Things aren't too expensive in places where I shop, either. Of course, I also watch where it's cheaper, like my friends report all the time that there's cheaper butter, there's sugar,” Pileniece said.
She said that home production is not only easy to start at the moment, but also possible to perform successfully and even earn well.
The PVD, which monitors home production, also agrees with what Anda said.
“In Latvia, the share of home producers has always been quite large, proportionally from all producers of products,” said PVD representative Ingrīda Sproģe.
She said not all would-be entrepreneurs are able to afford premises for production, while home production is possible in a person's place of residence so it is much easier to start.
The latest data shows that there are currently 1,900 home producers in Latvia, last year they were 1,857, but in 2021, 1,680. According to Sproģe, Latvian home producers are active in the development of a wide variety of products, but production of meat, fish, and dairy products is predominant.
“All the while, the total number of home producers is increasing and rising despite the circumstances. [..] The time of Covid-19 kicked off with some increase in home production, and it continues until now,” Sproģe said.
