Emerging trends are shaping China’s Food and Beverage market

2 November 2020 1360 Анна Гурбанова

Изображение: shutterstock.com

China is the world’s largest importer and consumer of food products, for which reason it continues to attract foreign investors despite the impact of COVID-19.

Nevertheless, China’s lock down and movement restrictions imposed by the pandemic have started to shape new trends affecting consumer behavior and China’s F&B industry overall.

According to CFNA statistics, in 2018, the most popular food segments among Chinese consumers were: seafood (16.58%), meat produce (15.08%) and dairy products (14.35%). In contrast to 2016, imports of F&B industry grew tremendously by more than 50%.

By 2021, China will import over US$ 100 billion worth of food products.

Nonetheless, external factors are shaping the leading trends in F&B market in China. Due to self-isolation, the traditional offline retail trade in fresh produce has drastically dropped, whilst e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce proved to have grown rapidly instead. The direct use of live-streaming as a sales tool has also gained popularity, showing to have a strong influence over Chinese consumers: in 2019, live-streaming e-commerce market reached US$ 61.24 billion.

It is worth paying attention to the shift in consumer behavior trends, as with the influence of the pandemic, Chinese consumers’ demand for meat produce has fallen, opening up more opportunities plant-based meat producers.

In addition, it is predicted for COVID-19 to impact growth in demand for dietary supplements, immune-boosting foods and energy drinks.