The prepared food industry will go all the way

Our reporter Wang Xiaoxuan

Recently, the China Chain Store & Franchise Association and Huaxing Capital jointly released the "2022 China Chain Catering Industry Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), which conducted a special chapter analysis on the prepared dishes category, and discussed the general situation, development drivers and financing situation of the prepared dishes industry.

The supply and demand of the prepared vegetable industry are booming

According to the analysis of the "Report", the market size of China's prefabricated vegetable industry is currently over 300 billion yuan, and the industry scale is expected to grow to about 830 billion yuan by 2025.

Pre-prepared vegetable products belong to the agricultural and sideline food processing industry under the manufacturing industry, and the products radiate to many fields.

The "Report" shows that with the vigorous development of the takeaway industry and the demand for household consumption caused by the epidemic, the prefabricated vegetable industry has expanded from a very small number of categories such as quick-frozen rice and noodles to a variety of dishes, from B-end to C-end consumers, from first-line consumers.

Catalyzed by factors such as the domestic epidemic, the home economy, the miniaturization of households, the booming development of takeaways, the chain of restaurants, and the improvement of refrigeration technology, pre-made dishes have shown a new trend in consumption

According to the company's data, as of May, there were 66,700 enterprises related to prefabricated vegetables in China

According to the regional distribution of prefabricated vegetable enterprises in the "Report", it can be seen that Shandong ranked first with 8,200, followed by Henan and Jiangsu, with 6,300 and 5,600 respectively, Guangdong, Hebei, Provinces such as Anhui followed closely

70% of takeaway merchants use cooking kits

Pre-made dishes can help the catering industry reduce costs and increase efficiency and improve profitability

The report shows that demographic change is one of the main drivers of the prepared dish industry

The main drivers of the prepared vegetables industry also include changes in channels

Taking into account the needs of short-term preservation and low-temperature storage of pre-made vegetables, the "Report" believes that in the future, before the cold chain distribution network at the C-side is not perfect, the main channel for the sales of pre-made vegetables will be offline supermarkets or new retail channels, not online.

　　The driving factors also include the large-scale application of pre-made dishes in catering channels, which continuously educates consumers' minds; the proportion of pre-made dishes used in leading chain catering companies is already high

　　According to the "Report", the high cost of the platform and the involution of delivery time have forced takeaway merchants to purchase pre-made dishes.

The competitive landscape of the industry is extremely fragmented

　　The trend of restaurant chaining further promotes the application of prepared dishes and promotes the maturity of the supply chain of the entire prepared dishes industry

　　The taste of pre-made dishes has been upgraded, and the advancement of research and development level and freezing technology has made the taste of pre-made dishes close to the restaurant level, and the category expansion space is broad

　　With the popularity of pre-made dishes, driven by the market and capital, upstream and downstream companies in the supply chain have poured into the pre-made food industry, major catering companies have also launched pre-made food products, and many pre-made food brands have obtained multiple rounds of financing

　　The prefabricated vegetable industry as a whole can be divided into five major schools: professional prefabricated vegetable companies, catering companies, quick-frozen food companies, meat products companies and platform companies
.
Professional pre-made dishes represent the company's benefits and taste, taste and fragrance, steaming, stewing, etc.
; catering companies include Wangjiadu, Jia Guolong, Tongqinglou, Xinya, Grandma's, etc.
; quick-frozen food companies include Anjing, Sinian, Sanquan, etc.
; meat Product representative companies include Tyson, Chia Tai, New Hope, Fengxiang, etc.
; platform companies include Hema, Meituan, Dingdong Maicai, Yonghui,
etc.

　　China's prepared vegetable industry has just started, and the competitive landscape is extremely fragmented
.
The industry is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, with an average enterprise size of about 15 million yuan, which is generally limited by cold chain transportation, channels and funds, so the market concentration is low and the regional characteristics are obvious
.
At present, the main leaders in the industry have basically reached a scale of 1 billion yuan, including Steam Cooking, Cong Kitchen (Xinxiang Kitchen), Jiayan Foods, Xiamen Lujin, Xinliangji, etc.
However, compared with the market space of 300 billion yuan ( C-end + B-end), the industry concentration is low
.

　　At present, pre-made dishes are in the early stage of rapid development, and the market space is large
.
The taste and convenience of the new generation of pre-made dishes have made great progress, and consumers' awareness of pre-made dishes is also improving
.
The increase in the chain rate of restaurants, the development of take-out, and consumers' demand for convenience are all driving the development of the pre-prepared vegetable industry
.
The "Report" predicts that the scene of home dining will still exist for a long time in the future, the consumer demand for fast food will increase, and the channels for residents to buy ingredients will continue to migrate to modern supermarket channels and new retail channels.
Points will continue to increase
.
In the future, the market space for prefabricated vegetables will be wider
.

"China Food News" (August 11, 2022 02 edition)

　　(Editor-in-charge: Zhou Yan)