In the past two years, the "fire up" prepared dishes continue to heat up.
With the rise of the lazy economy, the pre-made dishes that can be served as long as they are heated have not only become the new favorites of many consumers, but also become the new stars chased by the capital market. Since 2020, 5 prefabricated vegetable enterprises, namely Qianwei Central Kitchen, Babi Food, Weizhixiang, Chunxue Food and Gaz Food, have been listed successively. Since 2022, the concept of "prefabricated dishes" has been riding the dust in the A-share market, and many individual stocks have continued to rise and fall.
According to the latest "Research Report on the Development Trend of China's Prepared Vegetable Industry in 2022" released by Ai Media Consulting, it is expected that china's prepared vegetable market will maintain a rapid growth rate of about 20% in the future, and the scale of the prepared vegetable market will exceed 500 billion yuan in 2023. The huge market prospect has also triggered chaos in the prefabricated vegetable industry. How exactly did the prepared dish catch fire? Will it be the next trillion new blue ocean?
Another one was "eaten" out of the new outlet
The sales climax of the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger made the prefabricated dishes run out of "acceleration". According to ai media consulting statistics, during the Spring Festival in 2022, the sales of prefabricated dishes on Taobao increased by more than 100%; the sales of hema prefabricated annual dishes increased by 345% year-on-year; the sales of high-end prefabricated dishes of Dingdong buying vegetables increased by more than 3 times year-on-year, and 3 million prefabricated dishes were sold in 7 days, and the unit price of customers increased by 1 times year-on-year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected people's lifestyles and dining habits, and has also promoted the popularization of prepared dishes nationwide. The reporter saw on some fresh platforms that the types of prepared dishes are rich and diverse, and the eight major cuisines of Sichuan, Hunan, Huilu, Suzhou, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong are all absent. For example, for one to two servings of sauna chicken, sheep scorpion, coconut chicken, etc., the ingredients include the required ingredients and quantitative condiments. The price of prepared dishes ranges from 10 yuan to 100 yuan, the shelf life ranges from 3 days to 270 days, and some pre-made dishes have a shelf life of up to one year.
Image source: A fresh platform
Who buys prepared food? Ai Media Consulting survey shows that among the users of pre-made dishes, 65.5% of the users are distributed in first- and second-tier cities, and 16.4% of users are distributed in third-tier cities. Middle-aged and young people, 22-40 years old users accounted for 81.3%. There are more female users, accounting for 58.4%. Saving time is the main purpose of users buying prepared dishes, reaching 71.9%, followed by delicious and dislike of cooking.
Portrait of a prefabricated dish user. Source: Ai Media Data Center
"The pre-made dish is simple to handle, and you can get a meal in a hurry." Miss Li, a post-95 consumer, told reporters that she often orders some pre-made dishes on the e-commerce platform, mainly based on self-heating rice and lazy hot pot. Due to the irregular time after work, sometimes after work late, I will choose these foods that "don't need to be handled" for dinner. Mr. Zhang, a post-90s consumer, also said that he would buy some prepared dishes for one person on the fresh food platform: "The amount of ingredients is reasonable, and the ingredients and spices are directly put into the pot in order, which is convenient." ”
How did the pre-made dish catch fire?
In fact, in the field of catering, pre-made dishes are not a new thing, but before that, they were mainly prevalent within catering enterprises. Pre-made dishes are finished or semi-finished dishes that have been washed, cut, matched and other pre-processed, and can be divided into four types of products according to the degree of deep processing and ease of consumption.
Prefabricated vegetables industry classification. Source: Ai Media Data Center
Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, analyzed that the superposition of multiple factors such as home culture, lazy economy, and cooking white has boosted the development of prepared dishes.
The reporter combed and found that from frozen chicken wings to self-heating hot pot, from quick-frozen dumplings to coconut chicken sets, the types of prepared dishes are becoming more diverse over time. At present, the C-end of the prepared dish is mainly for mass consumption, and the ingredients are also popular. The development of food processing technology and the improvement of cold chain logistics and other facilities have also promoted the development of prefabricated dishes from B-end catering enterprises directly to the C-end consumer table.
On April 27, 2021, Weizhixiang landed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange as the first "prefabricated dish" in China, with an issue price of 28.53 yuan, and it ushered in 13 up-and-down boards after listing, with a maximum market value of nearly 14 billion yuan. According to public information, Weizhixiang was established in 2008, and its products include meat and poultry, aquatic products and other categories, covering hundreds of dishes.
Recent investment and financing of prefabricated vegetable brands. Source: Ai Media Data Center
It is worth noting that Weizhixiang did not take financing before the listing, but just before and after it received the listing counseling, the capital pressed the "fast-forward button" of the layout: Zhenwei Xiaomeiyuan, Wangjiadu Food, Three Meals and other prefabricated vegetable enterprises have obtained financing, ranging from tens of millions of yuan to nearly 100 million yuan. Traditional catering brands such as Haidilao and Xibei Noodle Village, as well as fresh retailers such as Hema Fresh, Pupu Supermarket and Dingdong Grocery Shopping, have also joined in.
In addition, the development of this track is also inseparable from the implementation of the government's support policies. As early as 2016, the mainland's "Outline of the National Green Food Industry Development Plan" proposed that all departments should continuously strengthen marketing services, improve the market circulation system, and promote green food to enter the development track of "guiding consumption with brands, driving the market with consumption, and promoting production with the market". This is an important foundation for the development of catering enterprises, including prepared dishes.
In March 2021, the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Outline of Long-term Goals for 2035 clearly stated that it is necessary to vigorously develop the green food industry, support the construction of major projects such as green food, and improve the food and drug quality and safety traceability system. The food manufacturing industry has accelerated its leap to the trillion-level level, strengthened the green food industry chain, and formed a competitive trillion-level industrial cluster.
"The central kitchen that produces prepared dishes is connected to the field of origin and the market table at the other, which is an important carrier to promote the prosperity of the industry, and an effective means to extend the industrial chain, upgrade the value chain, and build a supply chain." Chen Ruiai, a deputy to the National People's Congress, said that Guangdong has a rich variety of agricultural resources, and the development of the prefabricated vegetable industry is an important carrier for promoting the high-quality development of modern agriculture and food industry clusters, promoting the revitalization of rural industries, and is a powerful hand to release the cluster effect of modern agricultural industrial parks and promote the quality and upgrading of the "vegetable basket" in the Greater Bay Area. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Guangdong Province has also issued a number of policies to support the development of prefabricated vegetable enterprises.
Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of Ai Media Consulting, said that under the comprehensive effect of policy support, residents' income improvement, changes in consumption concepts, and cold chain technology progress, prefabricated vegetables ushered in a golden period of development, and it is expected that in the future, China's prepared vegetable market will maintain a rapid growth rate of about 20%, and the scale of the prefabricated vegetable market will reach 516.5 billion yuan in 2023. Relevant data show that in 2012, there were only 1,400 enterprises involved in the processing of prepared vegetables in mainland China, and by April 2021, the number of enterprises involved in prepared vegetables reached 71,900.
The "sudden popularity" of pre-made dishes urgently needs to be unified standards
The "sudden popularity" of prepared dishes has made the market a bit overwhelmed, and the huge market prospects have also triggered chaos in the prepared vegetable industry. Product standards are not uniform, many non-prepared vegetable companies hang on the name of prefabricated dishes to confuse the concept, some insiders believe that the current prefabricated vegetable industry is still in the stage of theme speculation, from the stage of really entering the family is still far away. In particular, the early supply of B-end market-based prepared dishes will extend the shelf life through high salt and high oil, which is contrary to the healthy diet concept of many consumers.
Therefore, taste and food safety are issues that more consumers of prepared dishes believe need to be improved. According to the survey data of Ai Media Consulting, consumers believe that the top three problems that need to be improved in the prefabricated vegetable industry are: the degree of taste recovery of prefabricated dishes (61.8%), the food safety of prefabricated dishes (47.8%), and the diversification of prepared dishes (47.2%).
"Lazy hot pot is convenient, but the taste is not as good as restaurants." Ms. Lin, a post-90s consumer who has purchased a variety of Internet celebrity lazy hot pots, said. In addition to "delicious", consumers' requirements for the "freshness" of ingredients are also increasing, and additives and preservatives have become the safety hazards of prepared dishes.
According to the data of the public opinion monitoring system of Jiangsu Consumption Network, from January 1 to February 10, 2022, there were a total of 56,948 public opinions on Chinese New Year's Eve rice pre-made dishes in the province. At present, the problems in the prefabricated vegetable market include uneven quality of dishes, taste of dishes to be improved, dishes are not detailed, single varieties of dishes, logistics distribution and pick-up problems. Some consumers reported that the prepared dishes they purchased had spoiled and spoiled dishes, the ingredients were not fresh, the dishes contained foreign matter, and there were expired phenomena.
During this year's national "two sessions", Gao Mingqin, a deputy to the National People's Congress and director of Shandong Yidu Yinghe Law Firm, suggested that the state introduce special support policies to support project financing, land use, energy consumption, park construction and other aspects, and fully promote the development and growth of the prefabricated vegetable industry. According to Gao Mingqin, the scale of the mainland prefabricated vegetable market is 300 billion yuan, and by 2025, the scale of the prefabricated vegetable market will reach trillions of yuan. At the same time, she also suggested that the relevant departments of the state formulate industry standards as soon as possible, standardize the industry access conditions, and make unified provisions on the raw materials, processing technology, packaging, labeling, storage, cold chain transportation, microbial indicators, additive indicators, pesticide residue indicators, etc., to guide enterprises to enter the track of scientific management.
Aoyi news reporter Guan Yuhui Zhang Jieying