Since 2008, the imported food market has been flourishing in China. What Chinese people can now found in the supermarket a huge selection of foreign items and brands, such as chips, sushi, and biscuit. In comparison, Chinese traditional food is declining.
Cross-Cultural Influences of foreign food in China
The advent of foreign cultures, e-commerce platform, and tourism boom promote and influence gradually, the food choices in China. On one hand, more and more multinational companies have settled in first-tier cities in China, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, strengthening the ties and communication between foreigners and Chinese. Besides, the “intrusion” of foreign advertisements, TV programs and movies has introduced their local culture and food into China. On the other hand, Chinese people are also making active efforts to understand foreign cultures. Tourism boom emerged several years ago, the heat of which continues. The number of people traveling abroad in 2015 has amounted to 100 million and is expected to surge in the future. Moreover, the e-commerce platform in China has grown drastically in the past few years, the number of which has reached over 5000. The newly developing platforms like Tmall and Yihaodian, make it easier for consumers to buy foreign products. All these play a role in shortening the distance between Chinese and foreign cultures and influencing the food choice in China.
In the meantime, other problems in China are also minor factors for the change of people’s food choice. In the last several years, food safety problems in China were not controlled adequately. For instance, the consumers found insects or even Band-Aid in rice dumplings from Sinian (a famous rice dumpling brand), harming the brand’s image or even the whole market.
Change and Trend in Food Choices in China
The “intruding” foreign cultures lead Chinese people to choose foreign style food rather than traditional food. Different countries have their own characteristics of food. For example, France is famous for its champagne and wine, Belgium for its chocolates and Japan for its snacks and sushi. The advent of TV programs and advertisements presents Chinese people with lures of foreign-style food. Traditional Chinese food may include rice, spring rolls or rice dumplings. But the advent of foreign-style food has sped up the declination of traditional food, and the phenomenon has already existed for a long time. Now people prefer French fries, sandwiches, and coffee. It is estimated that fast food market gained the revenue of over 300 billion RMB in 2015. Fast food branch like Burger King, KFC, and McDonald is already constituting a big part of the market.
It is estimated that China will become the largest imported food consuming country, the market scale of which will amount to 480 billion RMB. Although with the new tax policy that was issued in April from the Chinese customs, a trend for cross-border online shopping, either through e-commerce platform or purchasing agent, will be flourishing. In summary, foreign food will still be a trend among Chinese costumes.
How Daxue helps its clients
Flavor adaptation is a key element for a specific market such as mainland China. Foreign brands need to adapt to the local tastes but also to the attitudes and values of the local costumers. Chinese customers are evolving over time due to the globalization, it is, therefore, compulsory for a brand while expanding its business to China to adapt its products, regarding the point of sales, the packaging, the texture of the food, the aspect of it etc… Daxue Consulting has conducted several focus groups and market survey for the Food & Beverages Industry.
Contact us to know more about China Market analysis on Food adaptation, at dx@daxueconsulting.com
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