Kitchen waste disposer "fever" off?

The soul torture of "what kind of garbage are you" was officially brought into the public eye in the second half of 2019, and then with the requirements of the 46 key cities in the country at the end of 2020 to basically build a domestic waste classification and treatment system, the kitchen waste processor market ushered in a round of explosive growth.

Up to now, garbage classification measures have been implemented for more than 2 years, but people's awareness of classification seems to have been diluted, and the enthusiasm for frantically buying classified garbage cans and racking their brains to distinguish dry and wet garbage seems to have cooled. Under such a background situation, whether the kitchen waste disposer, as a niche category, has also entered a "cooling" period.

Growth slowed

The mandatory implementation of "garbage classification" has indeed greatly stimulated the development of the domestic kitchen waste processor market, you know, in the more than 20 years of import, the market performance of this category has been in a tepid state. However, after the mandatory implementation of garbage classification management regulations in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xiamen and other cities in 2019, according to GfK Zhongyikang data, the online market sales of kitchen waste processors exceeded 130,000 units in that year, and the retail sales exceeded 300 million yuan, and 5,000 sets could be sold a week during peak sales. In 2020, more key cities "domestic waste treatment regulations" landed, coupled with the sudden epidemic let people have more time at home, which to a certain extent boosted the sales of kitchen waste processors, from the data point of view, in 2020, the online market retail volume of kitchen waste processors reached 217,000 units, an increase of 85%; Retail sales reached 440 million yuan, up 118% year-on-year.

It has to be admitted that compared with the previous two years of "positive momentum", the growth rate of the kitchen waste processor market in 2021 has indeed declined, and the State Grid of China has observed the data of Aowei Cloud Network, and the omni-channel retail sales of kitchen waste processors last year were 919,000 units, an increase of 10.2% year-on-year, which was more than 3 times smaller than the previous year's growth rate; Retail sales of 2.24 billion yuan, an increase of 29.3% year-on-year, the growth rate is almost cut compared with the previous year.

At the level of environmental protection policies, in May last year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Urban Domestic Waste Classification and Treatment Facilities"; In July, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission on Promoting Innovative Measures and Experiences and Practices of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, which includes the construction mode of domestic waste classification and treatment facilities in Shenzhen into the promotion list... Obviously, many cities across the country are still accelerating the promotion of garbage sorting.

Since the policies around garbage classification are still being implemented, what is hindering the further acceleration of the expansion of kitchen waste processors in the Chinese market with a penetration rate of less than 1%?

"It is not enough to have policies", Liu Jiyuan, research director of the kitchen and bathroom division of Aowei Cloud Network (AVC), told the State Grid reporter that in his view, the current development of kitchen waste processors, in addition to policy factors, also needs the education of category minds, otherwise it is still tepid, so one of the key points of the problem is that "consumer awareness is too little". Of course, "the previous base is lower, showing that the growth rate will be higher" can also be called one of the factors of the current market growth slowdown.

Regarding the "lack of consumer awareness", a professional brand that makes vertical kitchen waste processors has done a random street interview when promoting its own products, but the results show that most of the interviewees do not know what the kitchen waste processor is and what its role is. There are also a small number of consumers who have purchased and used in the early years or have some understanding of the kitchen waste processor through other channels, but the use experience is not good and they are worried that the kitchen waste processor will block the pipeline, but it will cause inconvenience and give up using the product.

In this regard, the relevant person in charge of the kitchen appliance company also admitted to reporters that at present, the kitchen waste processor has a weak market foundation, consumer awareness and consumption habits have not kept up. "On the other hand, the domestic 'soil' suitable for the survival of kitchen waste processors is still not ready. Therefore, from the perspective of enterprises, we must do consumer education, and at the same time, we must do product innovation, and we must do localization innovation close to the needs and pain points of domestic consumer markets. ”

Why break the game?

On the other side of the slowdown, the number of brands pouring into the food waste processor track is still increasing. I still remember that in July 2020, when the reporter wrote about the competitive pattern behind the hot growth of the kitchen waste processor market, he searched on the Jingdong platform with the keyword of "kitchen waste processor", at that time, the number of kitchen waste processor brands sold on the platform was 339, and now it has been retrieved again, and the number has reached 500.

"This fully proves that this market development potential is huge", the relevant person in charge of the kitchen appliance company analyzed to reporters, the current penetration rate of kitchen waste processors in the Chinese market is still less than 1%, while Europe, the United States and other regions have reached a penetration rate of more than 70%, which means that the mainland kitchen waste processors still have a lot of room for development. "But for it to 'get into the room' and become an indispensable facility in the consumer kitchen scene, it depends on the product itself."

This goes back to the pain points related to the development of the kitchen waste processor market mentioned in the previous analysis. The reporter flipped through the user evaluations of different brands of kitchen waste processor products in Jingdong Tmall and other e-commerce platforms, and summarized the analysis and views of relevant industry insiders, only in terms of products, the current kitchen waste processor has problems such as "product homogenization is more serious, more blade cutting and beating food", "installation and use inconvenience", "noise", "safety needs to be improved" and other issues. In addition, from the perspective of Chinese eating habits, Chinese prefer heavy oil, while containing a variety of high-fiber, large meat bones, which puts forward higher requirements for the grinding capacity of the kitchen waste processor, but often some of the old residential sewer pipe design is relatively old or aging, coupled with the kitchen oil pollution, it is easy to cause blockage, but cause trouble.

In fact, judging from the current market reaction, there are some related companies that have consciously begun to improve these pain points, such as the first and second places in the market share, Baker Bass, Aishiyi and other brands of related products using blade-free design, claiming that they can easily deal with hard chicken bone fish bones, and safety and durability have been greatly improved. Midea's small body and large "grinding" knife garbage processor, also using a bladeless design, using a high-speed rotating hammer, knocking on the kitchen waste to crush it, and then discharged through the sewer cyclone washout. In addition, the product also deals with the "noise" problem with a cushioning damping design. When inquiring about this product introduction, the reporter also noticed that the product is specially equipped with a dishwasher connection port, which can be functionally linked with the dishwasher - the small residue on the dishes is discharged from the dishwasher connection port, and then enters the sewer for discharge after being crushed by the kitchen waste processor. "Midea will not rush to catch up with the market heat", the relevant person in charge of midea pointed out, "for midea, the core is to ensure that the kitchen waste processor products can solve the problems of consumers, that is to say, to develop products around the pain points of consumers." ”

Some comprehensive home appliance brands such as Midea, as well as some other kitchen appliance brands, have entered the kitchen waste processor market and continued to make efforts to lay out, which will undoubtedly be conducive to the updating and iteration of kitchen waste processor products. On the one hand, these enterprises have strong overall manufacturing capabilities in terms of production equipment, production capacity, production scale, etc., and can use their own mature channels to achieve rapid distribution, which is easier to reach consumers than vertical professional kitchen waste processor brands. On the other hand, the concepts of "set-up" and "smart home/smart kitchen overall solution" played by various home appliance brands will also have a greater advantage in the promotion of new products, which is conducive to promoting the further popularization and penetration of the kitchen waste processor market.

Liu Jiyuan also analyzed that with the layout of some vertical brands of kitchen appliances and comprehensive brands of home appliances, the popularization of the kitchen waste processor market will accelerate, but at the same time, fierce market competition is inevitable. He predicted that the kitchen waste processor will serve as an integrated washing center for the kitchen together with the integrated sink in the future, and together with integrated cooking, integrated food storage, and integrated microclimate, it will form the entire integrated kitchen system. At that time, only companies that have "products superior to others, mental education is stronger than others, and category integration supports that are earlier than others can stand out." ”