The epidemic has highlighted the emergency protection attributes of canned food. While canned yellow peaches are popular, it is also an important opportunity for my country's canned food industry
Yellow peach "out of the circle", can the canned food industry seize this wave of business opportunities?
Our reporter Li Guo
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my country is not only the world's largest canned food producer, but also the largest canned food exporter.
With the iterative optimization of craftsmanship and the evolution of lifestyles and consumption patterns, canned food companies have industrialized traditional Chinese dishes, which has led to a rise in the volume and price of the canned food industry.
"Before I figured out what was going on, it was sold out." In the past few days, the sudden popularity of canned yellow peaches in Chongqing's large and small supermarkets has caught the salespeople by surprise.
The reporter visited and found that Chongqing, as a big market for yellow peaches, is not only hard to find offline cans, but even on e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo, Taobao, and JD.com, stock outs also occur from time to time.
The unexpected popularity of canned yellow peaches was immediately transmitted to the secondary market, and several canned-related companies have seen their share prices soar recently.
Tongnan, Chongqing is one of the two largest yellow peach production bases in the country. Its annual output of tens of thousands of tons of yellow peaches in Tongnan is comparable to that of the American ace variety - "Telmont".
The quantity and quality of the canned yellow peaches produced by Tongnan Cannery Factory are among the best in the country.
"All the stocks in the past two weeks have been sold out!" Liu Shaochun, the person in charge of the canning factory, told reporters on December 25, "We will take advantage of this shareholder trend and install new equipment next year to strive for a new level of production."
According to data from Tianyancha, there are currently nearly 46,000 canned food-related companies in my country.
Among them, the average monthly growth rate of newly registered companies from January to November 2022 is 34.3%.
In terms of registered capital, 69% of the relevant enterprises have a registered capital of less than 1 million yuan.
This winter, canned yellow peaches are on fire
Recently, with the continuous optimization of epidemic control measures in various places, the sales of some food and beverages that can supplement vitamins are booming.
Among them, canned fruit, represented by canned yellow peaches, was in a rush to buy.
In the past month, the turnover of canned yellow peaches in Jingdong Supermarket increased by 245% year-on-year.
The reporter saw at Chongbai Supermarket in Guanyinqiao, Chongqing, a middle-aged woman in her 40s picked out a few cans of luncheon meat and canned dace with fermented soybeans after asking about the availability of canned yellow peaches.
"The epidemic has been repeated, and the family has to stock up on some supplies." She said that she didn't want to order takeaway, and simple cooking with canned food can make delicious dishes.
Canned yellow peaches suddenly became a "net celebrity", which also pushed my country's canned food industry into the "outlet".
The reporter learned in the interview that yellow peaches are usually filled in cans after they mature in July and August every year. Only fresh yellow peaches can be filled to ensure the quality of the cans.
Once the best time for production is missed, frozen yellow peaches have to be used, and the quality will vary greatly.
The person in charge of a food company in Chongqing said that the shelf life of canned yellow peaches is about two years. Due to the huge demand, even last year's stock was almost sold out.
According to the data from Tmall, the reporter found that since mid-December, canned yellow peaches have been listed on Tmall's entire network as the top 1 hot spot, with the highest search value exceeding 10 million.
According to Baidu's "Baidu Hot Searches Big Data on Epidemic Prevention and Control" released by Baidu, searches for canned yellow peaches have skyrocketed by 600% in the past 7 days.
"Enterprises must not rely on 'a gust of wind' for development, let alone profit from 'a gust of wind'." Pei Jigeng, founder of Huaquan Canned Foods, said that from the perspective of canned food, the entire industry will not change its big business because of this heat. The development trend, but the lack of brands, the weakness of channels, and the shortage of talents are the development plans that the canned food industry should think about today.
The epidemic has made consumers re-acquainted with canned food
The canned food industry is a traditional food industry in my country. Over the years, it has played an important role in supplying domestic demand, earning foreign exchange through export, serving "agriculture, rural areas and farmers", satisfying healthy consumption, and stably expanding employment.
Data show that in 2021, in the face of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, China's canned food industry will rise to the challenge. There are 665 canned food enterprises above designated size in the country, with a cumulative output of 8.32 million tons. The main business income of the whole industry is 117.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.33%. Realized a total profit of 6.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.82%.
According to incomplete statistics, during the three-year epidemic period, the national canned food industry produced a total of more than 27 million tons of canned food, with an output value of more than 350 billion yuan, stabilizing millions of jobs in the canned food industry chain, avoiding the pressure of the flow of people on epidemic prevention and control, and ensuring and improved people's livelihood.
Liu Youqian, chairman of the China Canned Food Industry Association, believes that the uncertainty of the epidemic and the inconvenience of living at home have made people feel anxious. Convenience foods represented by cans have played the role of supply for war preparations. They are stored at room temperature, convenient, safe, and Nutritious properties that provide people with emotional value and healing energy.
With the iterative optimization of craftsmanship and the evolution of lifestyles and consumption patterns, canned food companies have industrialized traditional Chinese dishes, enabling them to enjoy classic dishes such as lion head, braised pork ribs in brown sauce, and braised pork with preserved vegetables at any time without frying. The volume and price of the canned food industry have risen together.
"The epidemic has made some consumers re-acquainted with canned food. Fresh food is easy to perish, but canned food has a longer shelf life and does not occupy the refrigerator." Zhang Qingfeng, vice president of Shanghai Meilin Zhengguanghe Co., Ltd., said that now not only canned luncheon meat Widely popular, canned dishes such as braised bamboo shoots and braised pork have more opportunities to directly reach consumers. The company has been operating at full capacity. This year's revenue is expected to exceed 1.8 billion yuan, with a growth rate of over 30%.
my country is not only the world's largest canned food producer, but also the largest canned food exporter.
According to data released by Huajing Industry Research Institute, Chinese canned food has been exported to more than 140 countries and regions around the world, among which canned asparagus and canned oranges have accounted for 70% and 80% of the world’s total exports of this category, respectively.
Braised pork and canned dace are unique in China and are favored by the Southeast Asian market, with great potential in Europe and the United States.
In the past five years, the total export volume of my country's canned food reached 14.5 million tons, with an average annual export volume of about 3 million tons and foreign exchange earnings of 26.2 billion US dollars.
The canned food industry urgently needs to complete transformation and upgrading
"Facts such as the small scale of the enterprise, low degree of automation, and insufficient innovation ability restrict the further development of the industry, and the potential needs to be tapped." The general manager of Qingdao Kaichuang Food Co., Ltd., Chamber of Commerce, said frankly that after years of innovation and development, the company "strengthens single products, The strategy of making the whole series and actively integrating into the international supply chain has achieved remarkable results, realizing the international version of "connection between farmers and supermarkets".
"Innovation is not easy. In terms of product innovation, not only the packaging must be upgraded, but also the contents." Zheng Jianxiong, chairman of Guangzhou Eagle Money Enterprise Group, said that the company has carried out packaging and content upgrades on the fermented dace that has been on the market for more than 100 years. Changed, and launched a series of small magic pot products for 1 person, including spicy eel, fish with black bean sauce, etc., which are very popular.
"The secret recipe and flavor cannot be changed, but the manufacturing process must be innovative."
The person in charge of Shanghai Meilin, a well-known brand in the domestic canned food industry, said that the company has continuously integrated into the business environment of the new era by changing its marketing methods.
The omni-channel distribution model of "e-commerce + supermarkets + specialty stores" has been enabled, and the canned food and chilled meat business has been reduced to terminal stores. Using the direct logistics network, the market share and sales performance in the Yangtze River Delta region have increased year by year.
"Each of the more than 30 automatic canned orange production lines in Fengdao can save 15 manpower, and a total of 500 people can be saved." Xu Xiaofang, chairman of Fengdao Holding Group, said that as the first canned food production enterprise in the industry to complete the mass production of automatic peeling machines, Fengdao Thanks to the intelligent transformation, the Island Holding Group has saved nearly 2/3 of the manual peeling compared with the past.
The current lack of category-leading companies in the canned food industry just gives new forces the opportunity to break the circle by subdividing categories and groups.
The reporter learned from the Agricultural Committee of Hechuan District, Chongqing that the district invited Hu Haiqing, the founder of Tianxia Xingnong, to combine the face makeup culture with the characteristics of the natural original fruit color of yellow peaches to create a unique cultural IP "Taotao", which has become Hechuan Taihe Huangtao's unique brand imprint.
"The future development of the canned food industry must achieve breakthroughs and surpasses in terms of quality upgrades and high-value utilization of by-products." Professor Mo Yuanming from Chongqing Technology and Business University believes that due to the impact of the epidemic, the "prefabricated vegetables" market is booming, and the canned food industry is also recovering strongly. .
A batch of high-quality and well-known brand cans are targeting strategic outlets and are seizing a new track for the development of the consumer goods industry.
Driven by the market force of consumption upgrading and guided by the goal of "Healthy China", the demand for healthy and functional food has a bright future.
(Worker's Daily)