Reporter | Zhao Xiaojuan
Edit | Zan Huifang
Dairy companies are trying to sell more cheese products to Chinese consumers.
According to Luo Zhigang, general manager of Beijing Yinhe Road Economic and Trade Co., Ltd., in recent years, cheese retailing has become a new consumer trend, especially children's cheese has become an innovative food.
Almost all dairy giants have increased their investment in the cheese category. At the Cheese Summit Development Forum of the 12th China Dairy Conference held recently, dairy companies including Miaoke Lando, Yili, Mengniu, Guangming and other dairy companies showed their cheese innovation products in the product promotion session.
Interface News visited a number of supermarkets and found that Brands such as Miaoke Landuo, Baguifu, Yili, and Miaofei are the main force on the current cheese regional shelves, of which Miaokelando and Baguifu have the most abundant shelf surfaces.
The investment of major brands has not only promoted the growth of the entire cheese market, but also led to a significant increase in cheese imports.
In 2019, China's cheese imports were 114,900 tons, an increase of 6% year-on-year; in 2020, it was 129,300 tons, an increase of 12.5% year-on-year; and this year, as of May 2021, cheese imports reached 82,700 tons, an increase of 66.4% year-on-year.
Children's cheese is the most rapidly growing product in the cheese market. With a cheese bar cut into the children's healthy casual snack track, Myoko Lando has already tasted the sweetness.
In 2018, the top four brands in the cheese market share were all foreign brands, at that time, Miaoke Lando's market share was less than 3%, ranking fifth; by the first half of this year, according to Kantar data, Miaoke Lando's market share in the retail channel had exceeded 33.8%.
In addition, the performance of cheese products in the Chinese market in terms of form and use scenarios is also more abundant than in previous years.
For example, BaiJifu's boxed remade cheese product "a cup of cheese"; Yili launched a cheese that can be smoked; Mengniu's organic cheese stick; Miaofei took "0 cane sugar" as the selling point; and the home cooking herun fresh cheese block was directly marked on the front of the outer packaging to reduce the purchase threshold for consumers.
According to Gao Hongbin, former vice minister of agriculture and honorary president of the China Dairy Association, cheese consumption in Western countries accounts for 40% of domestic dairy consumption, and China's cheese consumption accounts for less than 2%, and the development space of cheese products can be expected.
In addition to the retail channel, more breakthroughs in the catering channel are also one of the main breakthrough directions for the expansion of the entire cheese industry. According to the data provided by Luo Zhigang, the consumption in the field of baking and catering in the Chinese cheese market will account for about 70% in 2020.
Even Miaoke Lando, whose main product is children's cheese, is still expanding its catering channels. According to Lu Yanfei, general manager of the company's business unit and director of application research and development, in 2020, Miaoke Lando will cooperate with Chinese fast food chains such as Laoxiang Chicken and Rural Base to carry out cheese-related product research and development; recently, the brand and Beijing Daoxiangcun have cooperated to launch a joint cheese mooncake; next, it will also jointly launch cheese beef pie with Sanquan Foods to increase the application scenario of cheese in Chinese catering.
In addition, in order to further expand the sinking channel, Miaoke Lando recently established a normal temperature business unit, planning to deploy more low-tier cities with normal temperature products.
In the face of the increasing number of dairy producers in the cheese market, the intensification of industry competition, and the imminent outbreak of cheese wars, Chai Xuan, chairman of Miaoke Lando, said that the price war in this market segment has begun last year and will be normalized. But she stressed that Miaoke Lando will not take the initiative to fight a price war, and the solution to deal with the price war is product upgrades.
According to Euromonitor International's forecast, the average cheese consumption Chinese will reach 0.5 kg in 2028. Compared with the per capita consumption of Europe, Japan and South Korea, the cheese industry still has a market space of 20-100 times in the future.