[Economic Observation] What changes did the prepared dishes bring to catering consumption?
"In order to help catering companies enter the prefabricated vegetable market, the Association will open the "Chinese Brand Catering Enterprise Semi-finished/Finished Product Cloud Exhibition" link at the 21st China Food Festival to find prefabricated dishes that meet their own needs." Recently, China Han Ming, president of the Hotel Association, said in an interview with reporters.
Pre-made dishes are "semi-finished dishes". The main difference between them and take-out or finished dishes is that they are prepared in the central kitchen, frozen or vacuum packaged, and then sold to restaurants or consumers as "semi-finished products", as long as they are simply cooked It can become a finished dish. At present, the types, tastes, and packaging of pre-made dishes are gradually diversified, and expanded from the initial steamed dishes to stir-fries and stews.
With the acceleration of people's life rhythm and the advancement of rapid freezing technology, the taste of pre-made dishes can be highly restored, and pre-made dishes are accepted by more and more consumers.
The prefabricated vegetable market is getting hot. On the one hand, in the context of consumption upgrades, many consumers have higher requirements for the quality of food, which gives prepared dishes a certain audience base. Many young people who travel frequently or live alone have become interested in pre-prepared dishes after they are tired of taking out for many days. They believe that "pre-prepared dishes are more hygienic than take-out, and cost-effective compared to eating out."
On the other hand, the rise of boutique supermarkets and fresh food e-commerce has also promoted the development of semi-finished vegetables. Hema Xiansheng’s “Hema Workshop” sells semi-finished dishes under its own brand, and is also a channel for catering brands such as Xinya, Zhiweiguan, and Harvest Day to sell pre-made dishes.
Since the beginning of this year, affected by the epidemic, the field of pre-prepared vegetables that meets the home consumption scene has become an alluring blue ocean. Not only are catering brands scrambling for the beach layout, other businesses are also competing for the new track of semi-finished dishes. Data shows that pre-made vegetables will have the potential to grow into a trillion-level market in the future.
Industry insiders pointed out that the epidemic has brought significant losses to the catering industry, but at the same time, the epidemic has also become a catalyst for the rapid advancement of prepared dishes. In fact, pre-made dishes have indeed brought new business growth points to catering companies and expanded the market for eating at home scenes for catering companies.
However, objectively speaking, the current market share of prepared vegetables is not high. Therefore, for pre-made dishes to enter more ordinary family dining tables, it is necessary to further subdivide the categories according to different consumption scenarios to make the products more precise.
At the same time, strengthening industry communication and market promotion is also crucial. It is reported that the 21st Chinese Food Festival hosted by the China Hotel Association will be held from September 4th to November 10th. The online event of this food festival will set up semi-finished dishes and finished dishes cloud exhibition activities of Chinese brand catering companies. The organizers of the event will invite Chinese time-honored brands, catering intangible heritage companies, China’s top 100 catering companies, and Chinese brand catering companies. Semi-finished or finished dishes that are put on the market or enter the retail market are exhibited on numerous cloud platforms.
Yang Zhaokui