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The Market Trend of Fresh Food Retail
Post Time:2019-04-22Author:Food2China

Imported fresh food was rarely seen in China market several decades ago and a few people had the chance to taste them. However, with the improvement in people's consumption, the previously "rare taste" has become the "daily" food of every family. In 2018, the total value of Chinese fresh imports has reached $31.1 billion, up 28.9% year-on-year. The imported fresh food is getting more and more popular in China. Argentina red shrimp, Chile cherries, Ecuador white shrimp, Vietnam red dragon fruit and other imported fresh food have become "celebrity" in food industry. All this proves that China's market for imported fresh food is expanding, and high-quality imported fresh food are now affordable to every family.

Different from the traditional sales channels, the rise of Chinese comprehensive e-commerce, fresh e-commerce, new retail, unmanned retail and other platforms in recent years has promoted the development of the imported fresh food market. The scale of online fresh food trading is growing rapidly, and the number of users and sales volume of online purchase are rising continuously. According to data from IRESEARCH, fresh e-commerce market in China is growing at an average annual growth rate of over 50%. The turnover of Alibaba Fresh’s imports increased nearly by 300% year-on -year, while JD.com fresh food sales rose nearly by 200%.

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Generally speaking, the most common consumers in the family were born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, because they are holding "cooking responsibility" in a family and the one who has the right to decide when to buy fresh food. However, with the emerging of fresh food e-commerce, more and more young consumers under the age of 35 love to try buying fresh food online. More surprisingly, the new consumer group with the fastest increasing number are people born after 1995. 

Compared with other food categories, consumers are more "picky" about fresh products, and they favor fresher, natural and nutritious fresh food. According to the report of CBNData, the change of consumers’ demand leads to the popularity of fresh lobsters, blueberries , organic and natural vegetables and other healthy and fresh products. Thus the sales of fresh food is increasing steadily. 

What’s more, encouraged by relevant government policies, crossborder fresh consumption is growing rapidly, and more and more imported fresh food are served for dinner in ordinary family. The trend is developing from the first and second tier cities to the lower tier cities. In addition, "One Product, Various Origins" has become one of the trends that cannot be ignored many countries are exporting more products to the China. Take frozen shrimp as an example. Now Chinese consumers can buy frozen shrimp from different origins around the world through various channels, such as Argentina red shrimp, Vietnam/Malaysia prawn, Ecuador white shrimp, Brunei blue shrimp, etc., and therefore the overall sales show a strong growth trend.

CBNData analysis shows that eastern coastal provinces and cities such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Guangdong are the main consuming regions of imported fresh food, while northern provinces such as Liaoning and Shandong have witnessed strong growth in imported fresh food. Due to different consumption habits for fresh products in different areas, sales also vary greatly. The report found that in terms of the provinces' preference for fresh food, Beijing and Shanghai responded positively to the call of the "Buddhist" diet with a preference for fruits and vegetables. In contrast, consumers in northeast China and inland regions are seafood lovers, among whom, consumers in northeast China like nourishing seafood, while consumers in inland China like dried seafood. At the same time, fresh consumption is driving demand for other food in dinner, such as wine and cheese.

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Under the tendency of nationwide consumption upgrading, more daily and high-quality fresh food are also promoted by consumers' demand upgrading and the desire to seek novel. The industry is going through innovation of branding and labeling, pursuing health and freshness, and scene marketing.

Undoubtedly, consumption upgrading has become the general trend of fresh food retail, which will be a rapidly changing market with fierce competition. Fresh food suppliers need to combine online and offline saleschannel together. If they want to have a better development in the future, it's better set up physical stores for consumers to taste their fresh food, and online stores for consumers to buy various good-quality products.


Source:www.food2china.com

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