In 1992, MGM Pictures' "Cat and Mouse" was introduced to China, and the Chinese saw Jerry the mouse go to great lengths for a piece of cheese. Since the multi-episode cartoon has been broadcast, many people have always wondered why Jerry has a soft spot for that yellow block.
The large-hole cheese in the animation is based on the famous Swiss Emmental cheese, a dairy product with pores and a very skinny taste.
Now, this dairy product has entered the daily life of Chinese, from cheese slices in burgers and pizzas to cheesesticks in children's hands.
With the continuous exchange of Chinese and Western food culture, cheese began to enter the vision and life of Chinese people, and all kinds of snack-based and catering-oriented cheese products, such as gratin, cheese hot pot, cheese pizza, half-cooked cheese dessert, etc., are also quietly changing people's impression and attitude towards cheese, promoting the continuous growth of China's cheese industry.
1. Cheese stands on the dairy product consumption outlet
The competition in the dairy market is gradually fierce, the growth of traditional categories is slowing down, and emerging categories are emerging one after another, and dairy companies need to find new market segments.
Dairy products and health drinks are daily consumer goods, with the continuous improvement of consumers' health awareness, as well as the improvement of residents' income level and consumer purchasing power, the market penetration rate of dairy products will continue to increase, and the overall consumption scale will continue to grow.
In the new era, the deepening of the supply-side structural reform of the dairy industry has increased, consumption upgrading has accelerated, and the epidemic has accelerated the transformation of dairy consumption from "drinking milk" to "eating milk", and cheese has gradually entered the public's vision.
Cheese is rich in nutritional value and high added value, known as "milk gold", and is a very potential market segment.
After years of promotion, the dietary habit of "drinking good milk" has gradually been integrated into daily life, but the intake of dairy products is still not up to standard, and there is still a significant gap with developed countries.
This has a lot to do with the fact that Chinese people have not formally established the eating habit of "eating good milk", and the consumption of dairy products is still relatively single.
As people gradually change from "drinking good milk" to "eating good milk" consumption habits, the importance of cheese is gradually highlighted.
When cheese first entered the domestic market, the main sales channels were actually fast food restaurants, bakeries and Western restaurants and other catering channels, and China's cheese consumption was still dominated by baked catering.
In the catering logic, cheese plays a supporting role and seasoning, and consumers' habits of eating cheese in the catering logic are mostly passively generated.
Because consumers have not developed the initiative to participate in the process of cheese consumption, the maturation process of the domestic cheese market is relatively slow.
At present, the market scale of China's dairy industry is growing rapidly, according to Euromonitor International data, in the 14 years of 004~2018, the compound growth rate is as high as 22.5%, and the dairy consumption market size in 2019 exceeded 400 billion yuan, reaching 419.63 billion yuan. It is expected that by 2023, the market size will reach 10.53 billion yuan.
Incrementally, with the advancement of technology and the continuous increase of residents' income, the consumption structure of dairy products has become more and more significant from liquid milk to more nutritious and healthy yogurt and cheese.
Despite the high growth rate, the per capita annual consumption of cheese in the mainland is very low, and relevant data show that cheese is still in its infancy in the mainland, with a per capita annual consumption of only 0.51 kg. This can also explain why the growth of the Miokolan catering industry series can reach 72.74%, while the growth of the family table series is only 6.31%.
Compared with other developed Asian countries with similar eating habits, the per capita annual consumption of Japan and South Korea has reached 2.66kg and 3.23kg respectively.
In terms of the proportion of cheese in dairy consumption, the current mainland cheese consumption is only 1.5%, but Japan and South Korea, which have similar diets, have reached 18% and 47% respectively.
However, in the 400 billion dairy market, mainland dairy consumption is still dominated by liquid milk, of which room temperature white milk occupies the mainstream. However, with the structural upgrading of dairy products, cheese has gradually entered the public's field of vision and has become a new segment growth market for dairy companies.
2. The cheese market ushered in a chaotic war
As one of the dairy products with the highest nutritional content, cheese has always been known as the "milk gold". Because of its rich nutritional value, it is known as "God's gift to mankind" and "the crown jewel of the dairy industry" in European and American countries, and it still continues to have strong vitality.
The development of the dairy industry is an indispensable part of the "Healthy China 2030" plan, and has also become a key measure to enhance the national physique, especially to improve the nutrition and health of adolescents.
It has to be said that cheese has high nutritional value, rich taste, a wide range of use scenarios, and is in line with the upgrading of dairy consumption, which is indeed a market with broad development prospects, so it is not surprising why dairy companies want to "get a piece of the pie".
The reason why the cheese market can develop and expand rapidly is inseparable from the layout of catering and retail channels by dairy companies, which not only enriches the consumption scene, but also allows more consumers to recognize and accept cheese products.
Dairy companies also benefit a lot from the cheese market, and while enjoying the dividends brought by cheese, they can also enrich their product categories, and entering the cheese market can be said to have achieved a "win-win".
In recent years, cheese has gradually become popular among consumers, especially children's cheese products. At present, most children's cheese products appear in the form of cheese sticks, and many brands are running promotional activities.
In Ben Shangshu's view, behind the promotion activities is more and more companies continue to join, and the competition in the children's cheese market will be more intense.
For this reason, in order to attract children's attention, cheese is often linked with well-known animations in packaging design, using cute cartoon images.
When it comes to cheese, the first business that comes to mind is Myokolando, which focuses on cheese. Miaokolanduo is the only A-share listed company in China with cheese as its core business, and has achieved remarkable results since transforming its cheese business in 2016.
Stirring up a 10 billion market with children's cheese sticks, and constantly launching new cheese products such as mozzarella, cheese slices, pulled cheese, etc., has become one of the representatives of domestic cheese products.
And Yili, Mengniu, Bajifu, Miaoke, Guangming, Dr. Cheese and many other brands have their own cheesestick products.
Cheese sticks are aimed at children's snacking scenes, mainly for young parents. Compared with the past, the new generation of parents pays more attention to the healthy growth of children, and often has higher requirements when choosing snacks for their children.
Cheese sticks found an opening in the snack market due to their high nutritional value as "concentrated milk", and sales increased rapidly.
Emerging brands are also emerging with the help of capital. In June 2020, Miaofei, a children's cheese brand, received Series A investment from Jingwei China, and completed a Series B financing of nearly 100 million yuan in December of the same year.
In the shareholding structure of Shanghai Cheese Brand Management Co., Ltd., the parent company of "Dr. Cheese", investment institutions such as All Things Capital Phase I (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. can be found.
According to the data of Tianyancha Professional Edition, there are currently more than 1,100 cheese-related enterprises in mainland China whose business scope includes "cheese, cheese, cheese" and whose status is active, existing, moving in and out.
In 2019, the annual registration of cheese-related enterprises in mainland China reached a peak, with more than 250. In 2020, more than 180 cheese-related companies were newly established.
In the context of frequent epidemics in recent years, the increase in the frequency of consumer cooking at home has just given cheese a new opportunity.
Now, cheese products are not only expanding in the ready-to-eat consumption scene, but also entering the consumption scene such as home meals and catering industry.
Cheese protein, calcium are 10 times and 8 times that of milk, lactose intolerant can also eat, covering a wider range of people, coupled with the improvement of domestic cheese production technology and the improvement of cold chain logistics, together form the basic conditions for today's cheese heat.
Essentially, cheese is concentrated milk, a product of Western culture. Because of the huge dietary differences between China and the West, it is difficult for us to accept hard cheese.
However, as an Asian country, South Korea's per capita cheese consumption has reached 3.5 kg, mainly by combining Western-style cheese with its own diet, such as cheese rice cakes.
Compared with the West, all kinds of cheese are spread over the supermarket counter, and cheese can be used as a seasoning and a side dish as a staple food, whether it is sliced and diced, or eaten hot and cold, the versatility is comparable to table salt.
However, if the domestic market wants to reach this level, the road is obstructed and long, and how to develop domestic cheese is still a problem worth considering.
For more wonderful, please pay attention to the WeChat [Food Department Shangshu] public account