Homogenization is serious, how to break the development of cheese in China

Cheese sticks, cheese strips, cheese yogurt... In recent years, the development of China's cheese industry has accelerated, attracting more and more domestic and foreign enterprises and brands to join this increasingly fierce competition. While enterprises have successively entered the game, we must also see that the homogenization of products is serious and the price war is continuous. How can the industry break through the circle and continue to move forward? Many industry stakeholders said that through different packaging designs, to achieve consumer demand in different scenarios, will open a window for China's cheese industry.

Dilemma: Serious homogenization Price wars continue

In recent years, China's cheese industry has developed rapidly, of which the cheese stick track is particularly prominent. The data shows that in the first half of this year, the retail sales of China's liquid dairy market increased by 9% year-on-year, the retail sales of infant and adult formula milk powder market increased by 7.7% year-on-year, and the retail sales of the cheese market increased by 35.3% year-on-year. According to Everbright Securities, in 2020, the size of China's retail cheese market will be 8.776 billion yuan, of which the cheese stick market size is about 3.5 billion yuan - 3.6 billion yuan, and the cheese stick market accounts for about 40%. Compared with Western countries, cheese consumption basically accounts for 40% of domestic dairy consumption, the world average is 20%, and China's cheese consumption accounts for less than 2%, which shows that China's cheese consumption market has great potential.

The fierceness of the cheese market has attracted many domestic and foreign enterprises and brands to join this increasingly fierce competition. On the domestic side, represented by Miaoke Lando, Mengniu, Yili, Junlebao, Guangming, adopting a cow and other dairy enterprises have accelerated their layout. International counterparts are also constantly entering the track. In the past, there were giants such as Fonterra and Baylor, and recently there were many foreign brands such as Kabeti from New Zealand and Troyes from Israel, and at the Expo, these companies said that they were communicating and cooperating with domestic channel providers and intended to enter the Chinese market.

"Although the cheese industry is developing rapidly, most companies are not making money at present." Yingchangwu, sales director of Fonterra, believes that more and more enterprises are entering the cheese market, which has intensified the competition in the cheese market, which was originally in the early stage of development, which has directly triggered problems such as industry price wars and product homogenization.

The survey found that the ingredient list of various brands of products on the market is almost the same, most of them are water, cream, cheese, skimmed milk powder, concentrated milk protein, white sugar and so on. The price war that began to appear in 2020 has spread until this year, with direct reductions, full gifts, promotional activities continuing to increase, and serious rolls in the industry. Gong Qun, general manager of the Raw Material Cheese Marketing Center of Bright Dairy, once pointed out, "At present, the cheese terminal market is fighting for cheese sticks, and these products are homogenized in design, homogenized in packaging, homogenized in selling points, and the ingredient list is similar." ”

Cheese sticks belong to the re-made cheese, the market threshold is low, and the product variety is limited, driven by interests, more and more brands began to copy the products on the market, which brought serious homogenization competition, "When many manufacturers enter a single field, there will often be a big price war." In this regard, Zhou Dehan, CEO of Fonterra Group Greater China, believes.

Breaking the game: consumer demand leads to accelerated innovation

The existence of a series of problems has intensified the competition in the cheese market, which was originally in the early stage of development, and it is not easy for companies to develop and grow.

"From the perspective of industrial development law, price war and product homogenization are inevitable, when the industry begins to homogenize, enterprises must enhance the difference of products through technology, promote industrial technology upgrading, product quality upgrading, etc., so as to promote the further development of the entire industry." Dairy analysis expert Song Liang thinks.

If cheese brands want to break the situation, they need to accelerate the expansion of new business and accelerate the sinking of the third- and fourth-tier markets. In the view of Chai Xuan, chairman of Miaoke Lando, the key to the next step of market competition lies in product innovation, "Enterprises need to have insight in advance and comply with the real needs of consumers, and make innovation and upgrades in a timely manner." ”

"China's cheese market is big enough that people don't need to fight a price war." Zhou Dehan has his own unique insight into the Chinese market, "there are many other segments. Enterprises should differentiate the needs of different consumers through products. Whether it is a multinational company or a local company, how to meet the needs of consumers is the focus. ”

Gao Bang, chairman of The Belle Group, a Cheese giant in France, also said, "The demand of consumers and the possibilities for cheese are limitless. Cheese itself is not the end point of product design, but the beginning. "Gaobang believes that cheese can be flavored by adding different fruit products to make the taste more mild and increase palatability; through different packaging, to achieve consumer demand in different scenarios, so that consumers can easily enjoy cheese anytime and anywhere." The current market is only limited by technology and creativity, and in the future, cheese development should be promoted through better research and development technology and packaging technology. ”

In fact, some of China's leading dairy enterprises have insight into the development of the cheese industry is the key to localization, find regional consumption characteristics, combined with local diet characteristics, and make distinctive products. "The consumption scenario of cheese must be diverse." Chen Lijun, deputy general manager of Sanyuan Food, believes that with the gradual consumption of post-90s, post-00s and post-10s, the consumption scenario of cheese in the future will definitely change. "From the perspective of research practice, cheese still has greater industrial opportunities, especially in the health industry." Chen Lijun said. (Yang Xiaojing)

Source: China Food News