Pre-made New Year's dishes are on fire! Why?
In the face of the upcoming Spring Festival, how to arrange Chinese New Year's Eve meals? Many citizens decided to comply with the prevention and control requirements of not gathering together and gathering less, and enjoyed Chinese New Year's Eve meals at home, which also brought about the fire of the pre-made vegetable market. According to Tmall data, as early as 2021, during the "Double Eleven" period, the turnover of prefabricated dishes increased by about 2 times year-on-year. According to the data provided by Hema Xiansheng, as of now, the overall sales volume of its prepared vegetable products has doubled compared with last year. Why is it so popular? Reporters investigated.
"Reproduction" of the same taste, easy and fast production
The sales of pre-made annual dishes are increasing year by year
Pre-prepared dishes, in simple terms, refer to finished or semi-finished products made of agriculture, livestock, poultry and aquatic products as raw materials, with various auxiliary materials, and pre-processed. Pre-made Chinese New Year dishes, that is, semi-finished products of Chinese New Year's Eve rice, is a subdivision of prepared dishes, which mainly meets the special purchase needs during the Spring Festival.
What is the current offline sales of pre-made Chinese New Year dishes? The reporter came to a number of restaurants in Bailian South Shopping Center to visit the field. In the southern store of Suzhehui, the reporter met Ms. Huang, who came to buy pre-made New Year dishes, and she originally wanted to eat Chinese New Year's Eve meal in the restaurant, but considering the recent epidemic situation, she decided to choose to eat at home. "This year Chinese New Year's Eve rice didn't want to go outside to 'make a fuss', so I decided to try the pre-made dish. At that time, I will buy a little vegetarian vegetables and stir-fry, which is also more time-saving and labor-saving. ”
According to Zhao Kaibin, manager of the front office of Suzhehui Southern Store, with the increase in the number of "local New Year" in the past two years, the sales of semi-finished Chinese New Year's Eve meals have been steadily rising, compared with the same period last year, the overall sales this year have doubled. The reason for the popularity is not only convenient, but also related to its high cost performance. "Our 'Family Feast' gift box comes in multiple sizes and can accommodate up to 8 people. It contains signature dishes such as steamed anchovies and stir-fried anchovies. Among them, the steamed anchovy is brewed with high-grade flower carving wine, which costs more than 500 yuan in the store, but this set of gift boxes only sells for 658 yuan. ”
It is understood that the gift box is not only full of large dishes, cold dishes, and snacks, but also the restaurant has made sufficient efforts in the "front end" and "back end" of the production, and strives to restore the same taste after the citizens take it home. "We also have a complete set of instructions, marked with the preparation method and production process of each dish, and the citizens only need to follow the process to cook simply when they go home to 'reproduce' the food." Zhao Kaibin said.
In addition, Zhao Kaibin told reporters that in order to ensure the freshness and safety of ingredients, the restaurant stipulates that all pre-made New Year meals need to be booked 3 days in advance, and only after the reservation is successful will the production of distributions be started, and the production process will be strictly managed. "In the production process, special supervision is arranged throughout the process, and the production site is thoroughly disinfected every day, and all the ingredients on our side can be traced back to the source, and there are inspection and quarantine reports."
The reporter found that the variety of pre-made New Year dishes is also more abundant than in previous years, not only traditional Chinese food, but also Japanese cuisine. This year, Akasakatei launched a set menu such as "Sake Dance" and "Thousands of Guests", which contain ingredients such as M9 wagyu beef and cooked frozen black tiger shrimp, and citizens only need to simply fry and stir-fry when they go home. In terms of pick-up, the restaurant also offers a door-to-door delivery service tailored to the needs of different customers. "After the public calls our store to make an appointment, they can choose to pick up in the store, or directly deliver to their homes in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai." Ding Yamin, manager of Akasakatei Southern Store, said.
Young people began to "take the spoon" Chinese New Year's Eve meals
The trillion-dollar market may reshape the catering industry
According to the data provided by Hema, young people (30-35 years old) are gradually taking over the dominance of Chinese New Year's Eve meals. Among the surveyed consumers, 50% of them prepared Chinese New Year's Eve meals by themselves or their loved ones, of which Shanghai had the highest proportion of young people preparing Chinese New Year's Eve meals, at 52%. Compared with the older generation, young people are obviously more receptive to pre-made Chinese New Year dishes. According to the data, 82% of respondents aged 30-35 have a certain understanding of the "New Year meal", and 65% of them are willing to try to buy pre-made Chinese New Year dishes.
As the "spoon holders" of Chinese New Year's Eve rice are getting younger and younger, the demand for the New Year vegetable market is also changing. According to the survey, 76% of the respondents have the need to post Chinese New Year's Eve on social networks, and 80% of the respondents believe that the Chinese New Year's Eve meal is the most important thing, which requires that the New Year dish needs to have a higher appearance.
Around the needs of "good-looking, delicious and convenient", Hema's "customized" New Year dishes have recently been officially launched. Hema selected eight kinds of New Year dishes from various dishes across the country to form an "eight bowls" suitable for the tastes of Shanghai citizens. Among them, there are not only the "face value responsibility" such as the supreme Bolong seafood café and family portrait, but also the hard dishes such as cooked hairy crabs and brine geese, and there are also "town shop famous dishes" launched in cooperation with the long-established Shanghai Old Hotel - gold medal eight treasure duck.
The old hotel in Shanghai × Hema Workshop - Gold Medal Eight Treasure Duck
In addition to inheriting the classics, this year Hema also boldly innovated, improving the traditional Eight Treasure Rice, and launched a creative dish such as "Golden Raw Coconut Latte Eight Treasure Rice", which is accompanied by fragrant coconut milk and coffee liquid, plus golden coconut minced crushed, making this traditional New Year dish more fashionable.
Golden raw coconut latte eight treasure rice
It is worth noting that there are still many pain points in the pre-made vegetable industry. According to Hema's survey, 55% of the respondents' biggest concern about the prefabricated New Year dishes is that "the ingredients are not fresh, there are too many additives and preservatives", in addition, 25% of the respondents believe that the prefabricated New Year dishes "have few localized products and lack local specialties"; some respondents are worried that the prefabricated New Year dishes are "not in line with the picture and text", and the gap between the seller show and the buyer show is too large.
In response to consumers' concerns about the "freshness of ingredients", all the prepared dishes of Hema are made according to orders, using the freshest ingredients "ready-made and ready-to-sell", and strive to let consumers get the freshest products, "Hema's pre-made New Year dishes are all produced and distributed throughout the cold chain, and no additional preservatives are added." In addition, some vegetable prepared vegetable commodities, Hema has also been insisting on doing refrigeration short-term insurance. Hu Yinghua, head of new year vegetable research and development at Hema Workshop, said.
In addition, Hema also formed a package for 4-6 people, 8-10 people, and 10-12 people according to various scenes such as small families, large families, and young people gatherings. Consumers can also directly purchase single products, such as "Buddha Jumping Wall" and "Golden Soup Abalone Flower Glue Chicken", forming a "single Chinese New Year's Eve rice". Not only can it be purchased online and offline, but the sales time runs through the entire Spring Festival holiday to meet the needs of some consumers who not only prepare a Chinese New Year's Eve meal.
In fact, pre-made dishes are not a new concept, but a product that has appeared in China since 2000, and consumers have more or less bought "semi-finished dishes", but before 2014, the industry as a whole has been developing slowly. The rapid development of the prepared vegetable industry in the past two years is mainly related to the special environment after the outbreak of the epidemic, on the one hand, the rise of "home economy" and "lazy economy", "non-contact" and "convenient and fast" food has become the "favorite" of consumers. On the other hand, "dine-in" has suffered an impact, and the cost of raw materials, venue rent, labor and other costs offline has prompted enterprises to seek "cost reduction and income increase".
Therefore, whether online or offline, Internet giants such as Ali and Meituan, as well as major catering enterprises such as Xinya Cantonese Restaurant and Xibei, have been accelerating their layout in recent years. According to the "2021 China Prefabricated Vegetable Industry Analysis Report" released by Ai Media Consulting, the scale of China's prefabricated vegetable industry in 2021 is estimated to be 345.9 billion yuan, an increase of 18.1% year-on-year, if the future maintains a rapid growth rate of about 20%, the prefabricated vegetable market will reach a trillion scale after 6-7 years.
It can be seen that with the continuous improvement of consumer acceptance of prepared dishes, "prepared dishes" may really grow into a major catering consumption habit in addition to dine-in and takeaway in the future, subverting the existing catering industry pattern.
However, some insiders pointed out that the current sales of "prepared dishes" are still more dependent on the holidays mainly based on "New Year" and "Spring Festival", and the development is still at a relatively early level. "I think that at present, there is still a relatively large room for improvement in terms of variety and taste of pre-made dishes, and it cannot meet all catering consumption scenarios, and the impact on the entire catering industry is still relatively limited." However, with the advancement of technology, after some pain points are solved, they will gradually penetrate into the daily lives of consumers, bringing great changes to all aspects of the catering industry. Jiang Xuequan, chairman of the minhang district catering industry trade union federation, said.
Reporter: Mi Junhao
Edit: Si Qi