Yili has the largest market share in the adult milk powder market, Mengniu Yashili doubled the net income of middle-aged and elderly milk powder, Feihe's adult powder business increased by 29%, Danone China is the first to launch middle-aged and elderly milk powder, and Fonterra focuses on the differentiated innovation of middle-aged and elderly milk powder... Domestic and foreign dairy companies The competition to deploy the milk powder market for middle-aged and elderly people has made the driving effect of the silver-haired economy on dairy enterprises more and more prominent.

　　Institutional research data shows that China's middle-aged and elderly milk powder market will be nearly 8.5 billion yuan in 2021, with a growth rate of 19%.

With the number of elderly people in China reaching 480 million in 2050, the industry expects that the market size of middle-aged and elderly milk powder will continue to expand.

Although the industry has broad prospects, with more and more entrants, the competition is becoming more and more fierce, and the problem of product homogeneity is serious. It is difficult for companies to further expand the market.

　　At present, the top middle-aged and elderly milk powder companies are trying to innovate products through formula design and function selection, in order to increase the competition threshold and profit space, and expand more market shares.

　　Dairy companies compete for layout

　　Recently, Danone launched goat milk powder and milk powder for middle-aged and elderly people for the first time in the Chinese market, and continued to increase its adult nutrition business.

Another foreign dairy company, Fonterra, also mentioned in its 2022 fiscal year report that it will focus on high-end product upgrades and differentiated innovations in categories such as milk powder for middle-aged and elderly people.

In July of this year, Ausnutria launched the "Protect" series of milk powder for middle-aged and elderly people, and in September it launched the "Yingxin" formula goat milk powder.

For a time, milk powder for middle-aged and elderly people became the focus of the industry.

　　As reflected in the financial reports of listed dairy companies, as of the end of 2021, Yili's retail sales of adult formula milk powder ranked first in the market.

In the first half of 2022, Yili's share of the retail sales of adult milk powder market increased by 1.3 percentage points year-on-year.

In 2021, the net income of Mengniu Yashili's middle-aged and elderly milk powder brand "You Rui" will increase by 200%, and driven by the sales of adult milk powder, the overall revenue of milk powder products will increase by 22.7%.

Also in 2021, Feihe's adult powder business will grow by 29%, and its market share currently ranks among the top five in the market, and it will maintain stable and rapid growth.

　　As early as the end of 2020 at the Forum on the Scientific Development of Dairy Deep Processing Products, Song Kungang, the principle director of the China Dairy Industry Association, suggested that adult milk powder should be the main direction of milk powder enterprises.

According to the data he has, from 2015 to 2019, the proportion of infant formula milk powder in the whole domestic milk powder in my country dropped from 59.07% to 56.77%.

In contrast, the proportion of middle-aged and elderly milk powder increased from 8.53% to 11.81%.

　　According to third-party monitoring data, China's middle-aged and elderly milk powder market will reach nearly 8.5 billion yuan in 2021, with a growth rate of 19%.

In addition, according to the "China Aging Industry Development Report" issued by the National Working Committee on Aging, the number of elderly people in China will reach 480 million in 2050, and the consumption potential will increase to 106 trillion, accounting for 33% of GDP. The scale will continue to expand.

　　Yashili said in the financial report that the decline in the birth rate in my country has led to a slowdown in the growth of the total consumption of infant formula milk powder, and the industry has entered a stage of stock competition. In addition, the new national standard for infant formula milk powder and the launch of the secondary formula registration system have further increased the market concentration.

On the other hand, the aging of the population continues. With the continuous improvement of nutrition awareness among middle-aged and elderly consumers, formula milk powder has become the choice for many middle-aged and elderly people to supplement nutrition, and the driving force of the silver economy on the dairy industry will be more obvious.

At present, adult milk powder is in the initial stage of development, but it is becoming a new market breakthrough. Many domestic and foreign brands have launched milk powder products for the elderly.

The transformation from infant formula milk powder to full-life-cycle professional nutrition production is the general trend of the future development of the milk powder industry.

　　Industry competition intensifies

　　In the second half of 2020, Wang Weimin, deputy secretary-general of the Shaanxi Provincial Dairy Safety Production Association, noticed that Shaanxi goat milk powder companies are leaning towards adult powder.

More than 80% of the local adult goat milk powder is middle-aged and elderly milk powder.

　　According to the data that Wang Weimin had at the time, 34 dairy companies in Shaanxi were involved in the goat milk powder business, of which 19 were qualified to produce infant formula milk powder, and the rest were basically adult goat milk powder production companies, with sales accounting for about 40%.

After the outbreak of the adult goat milk powder industry, many foreigners went to Shaanxi to buy shares or acquire milk powder sales companies.

　　Deng Chunlei, sales director of Shaanxi Dairy Enterprise Yatai Dairy Co., Ltd., witnessed with his own eyes that a small infant milk powder factory with an annual revenue of tens of millions of yuan and almost closed down has come back to life by relying on adult milk powder OEM for the past two years. The OEM adult powder series reaches two or three hundred, as if the "grand occasion" of infant milk powder OEM before the implementation of the formula registration system in 2017.

However, with the advent of the secondary formula registration system, it is difficult for many infant milk powder companies with small sales or unable to invest in the market to survive. It is relatively easy for these companies to convert into adult milk powder, and the market competition is more intense.

　　A reporter from the Beijing News recently visited a Yonghui supermarket in Beijing and saw that middle-aged and elderly milk powders are currently on separate shelves. Middle-aged and elderly milk powder brands such as Aiben" and Miaoweisi are all vying for the beach and supermarket channels. The price of a single can of more than 700 grams ranges from 86 yuan to 248 yuan.

Among them, Yili, Nestle and Feihe also launched milk powder for middle-aged and elderly people in bags, cans and gift boxes. Feihe’s “Aiben” series also launched the “buy 2 get 1 free” campaign and gave gifts.

　　Yashili confirmed to the Beijing News reporter that as more and more dairy companies enter the middle-aged and elderly milk powder market segment, the competition is becoming more and more fierce, and it is also difficult for companies to further expand the market.

On the one hand, the consumption frequency of middle-aged and elderly milk powder is not high, which is related to the fact that the middle-aged and elderly consumer groups in my country have not yet formed a scientific understanding of milk powder.

On the other hand, compared with the infant formula milk powder market, the basic nutrition research of middle-aged and elderly milk powder is relatively weak, and it takes a long time to polish up to build one's own nutritional system.

　　Ausnutria believes that the middle-aged and elderly milk powder market still has great potential and space for development. The competition is not as fierce as the infant formula market, but there are not enough consumers in stock.

Ausnutria will further promote the promotion and consumer education of middle-aged and elderly milk powder.

　　Wang Weimin mentioned another problem in the adult milk powder market, that is, the gross profit margin is not high.

Compared with a can of infant goat milk powder, which costs three or four hundred yuan, a can of goat milk powder of about 800 grams for middle-aged and elderly people only sells for more than 200 yuan, but enterprises have to face pressures such as packaging materials, logistics, labor, rent, and poor sales. .

Yashili also said that most of the middle-aged and elderly milk powder products are positioned at the low-end level, and the price of 900-gram canned products is mostly between 70 yuan and 200 yuan, which is quite different from infant formula milk powder.

　　break homogeneous competition

　　Dairy expert Song Liang told the Beijing News that the development of milk powder for middle-aged and elderly people in my country has gone through three stages of development.

The first stage was from the 1990s to 2008. Middle-aged and elderly milk powder brands represented by Nestlé and Yili were deployed in the first- and second-tier markets to fill the gaps in milk powder nutrition for middle-aged and elderly people.

The second stage is from 2008 to 2018, when middle-aged and elderly milk powder entered a relatively rapid development period, achieving omni-channel coverage.

Since 2018, due to the overcapacity of infant milk powder, many small and medium-sized enterprises have switched to middle-aged and elderly milk powder, resulting in problems such as numerous brands, chaotic prices, and serious homogeneity in the industry, and the overall growth rate has also slowed down.

　　Yashili also confirmed to the Beijing News reporter that although there are endless milk powder products for middle-aged and elderly people on the market, the phenomenon of nutritional homogeneity is more serious.

Most products are high in calcium, low in fat, and add some other nutrients, and there are very few professionally segmented products.

Companies that realize this are gradually moving closer to the infant formula milk powder model, changing to a specialization and exclusive route, in order to expand more market shares.

Different from infant milk powder and children's milk powder, the demand directions of the middle-aged and elderly market mainly focus on immunity, bone health, sleep, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal health, etc. Therefore, enterprises must accurately meet the diverse health needs of the middle-aged and elderly.

　　The "2021 Research Report on the Status and Trends of Health Consumption among Middle-aged and Elderly Groups" pointed out that sleep, energy, blood sugar, blood lipids, etc. are the main concerns of middle-aged and elderly people.

Among the middle-aged and elderly people who choose food health care consumption, the consumption amount of food health care accounts for the highest proportion in the health consumption amount, reaching 41.84%.

　　In order to comply with this trend, Mengniu Yashili "You Rui" has launched milk powder products such as Guyi, Shunyi, Liyi, Xinpei, Yitian, and selenium-enriched and high-calcium goat milk powder in the past two years.

In response to consumers' demand for sugar reduction and fat reduction, Yashili is also optimizing formulas. Previously, it has completed the upgrade of the entire series of "You Rui" sugar reduction formulas, and the upgrade of raw milk is also being carried out.

In addition to Mengniu Yashili, Yili has also developed the "Xinhuo" sugar-relieving dietary formula for middle-aged and elderly people with osteoporosis and cardiovascular health, and launched the first "0 sucrose, low glycemic index" adult food formula in the industry. Powdered sugar.

　　"In the past two years, Feihe has further accelerated its layout in adult powder, hoping to provide reasonable and more suitable nutritional support for middle-aged and elderly groups." Feihe told the Beijing News reporter that there were many product brands in the adult powder market earlier. , There are many categories, serious homogeneity and uneven product quality. Many products enter the market by OEM and will be sold, resulting in disorderly competition and a greater impact on consumer confidence.

As the market develops day by day, leading brands have gradually stepped into or accelerated their layout in this field, with more product categories, great innovations in formula design and function selection, and the market has shifted from extensive expansion to refinement. Development, competition will be more rational, which will bring further expansion of the market.

　　Song Liang predicts that it will be an inevitable trend for middle-aged and elderly milk powder to change from basic nutrition to professional nutrition. Currently, the middle-aged and elderly milk powder used for professional nutritional supplements and other functions is in the blue ocean of the market.

With the increasing number of formulas, it is recommended that the state establish a formula milk powder standard for middle-aged and elderly people as soon as possible, and the industry will quickly adjust from low-level homogeneous competition to professional nutrition, and consumers must keep up with correct education to solve the problem of insufficient consumer confidence.

　　Guo Tie, chief reporter of the Beijing News