Qingdao's local candy brands have almost disappeared, and sorghum has become a childhood memory

Local candy brands have almost disappeared

The Spring Festival has always been the peak season for the sales of candy, especially domestic candy brands, and about half of the annual income comes from around the Spring Festival, which also brings seasonal business risks to the healthy development of sugar enterprises. Whether in the supermarket or in the wholesale market, the reporter saw that foreign brands such as Great White Rabbit, Yake, Alps, and Xu Fuji have become the mainstream sugar in the Qingdao market.

For sugar companies, the bigger crisis is coming from the outside: in the era of mass consumption upgrading and material abundance, the once "luxury" candy has become a common snack and has been affected by other rising snacks. Under the wave of health, the public often talks about "sugar" discoloration, per capita candy consumption continues to decline, and the rise of e-commerce has intensified the impact of foreign brands on the domestic candy market... In the face of the industry crisis, the reshuffle period is coming, candy companies have to change, transformation or innovation is imperative.

Located on Yanji Road in Shibei District, the "silly two fried goods" ushered in the busiest moment years ago. Usually, they open their doors at 7 o'clock to do business, mainly selling local dried fruits, traditional handmade souvenirs and a small amount of sweets. In the waxing moon, the store has increased the purchase of candy, not only opening its doors at 5 or 6 a.m. every day, but also packing a wide variety of bulk candies into small plastic baskets for customers to choose.

"Candy sales have seen this period of time, and the flow of people can continue until 11 or 12 o'clock at night, reaching more young consumers who do not like to visit the market." Sun Jing, a staff member at the store, said.

In the Hong Kong Middle Road Business Circle, Taitung Business Circle, Li Cun Commercial Circle and other major supermarkets, Xu Fuji, Ma Dajie, Alps, Ferrero and Dove and other candy brands have prepared for the Spring Festival peak season early, and have set up Special Booths for the Spring Festival, with a variety of candies, chocolates made of "pyramids" and Different Shapes of New Year candy gift boxes, attracting many consumers to stop and buy.

In the wholesale market, the price of bulk candy ranges from a few yuan a pound to dozens of dollars a pound. Among the dozens of kinds of candy selected by the reporter, none of them are locally produced in Qingdao, and the main production areas are Dongguan, Shanghai, Jiangsu Taicang, Fujian Jinjiang and so on. "I have not sold candy from Qingdao, but we have some small brands of candy, such as sorghum dumplings, but the brand is not too loud, it is a childhood memory." The owner of a shop at the Lijin Road wholesale market said.

The reporter's investigation found that for a long time, offline channels have been the main battlefield of candy brand competition, but with the rise of e-commerce, candy brands have also made efforts online, each setting up official flagship stores. The city's Spring Festival online and offline candy sales show a differentiated competitive trend, from the perspective of the sales cycle, offline is far longer than the online sales cycle, in the Spring Festival before and after the online store to stop shipping, offline channels become the only battlefield for candy sales.

In addition, in recent years, new snack brands such as Three Squirrels, Good Shop and BaicaoWei have risen rapidly, and the rich snack food category has diverted some of the market of candy. The increase in public health awareness and the increase in demand for low-sugar and sugar-free products have led to a decline in China's per capita candy consumption year by year.

"The trend of reducing sugar and health is actually an industry crisis. Qingdao food professional Dong Weiqing said that now the homogenization of the entire confectionery products has been very high, the new generation is actually not resistant to new brands, for novel products is also no resistance, so innovation and upgrading iterations still have to do.

[Source: Qingdao Evening News Editor: Qian Peng]