Text: Maggie
In 2024, a dark horse has emerged from the soybean milk class.
Xiaohongshu notes quickly surpassed 10,000; The search volume of Douyin is even more exaggerated, surpassing soy milk, to 501,000, and it has been on the TOP1 of Douyin's nutritious soybean milk super value hit list, Douyin soybean milk powder hit list and top 10 popularity list.
This dark horse is astragalus soy milk.
Taking Joyoung soybean milk as an example, as of now, less than 2 months after the launch of Astragalus Codonopsis soybean milk, the sales volume of the official store Douyin platform has exceeded 10,000.
Under the rise of food and medicine, the functionalization and health of soybean milk seems to have finally ushered in the correct way to open. How is the small outbreak of astragalus soy milk achieved?
Astragalus soybean milk, will it be the next hot product?
Soybean milk, as a native national drink, is the earliest product that carries the nutrition and health of the Chinese people. And when the material is gradually enriched and there are more and more choices, the "top stream" soybean milk in the past can only take a back seat, and there is a big gap with milk, coffee, milk tea, etc.
Up to now, the market size of soybean milk is about 20 billion, and the "world" has long been divided by Joyoung, VV, Yonghe, etc.
Nowadays, the functionalization and health of food and beverage are no longer new, and soybean milk has finally ushered in a "correct upgrade method".
Soy milk + food and medicine are homologous.
According to the insight of the Zhitiqiao Nutrition and Health Insight Research Institute, in the first half of 2024, the sales of astragalus soybean milk on the online platform of the Tao system will increase by 517 times year-on-year and 345 times month-on-month, and there is still room for continuous growth.
Taking Douyin keyword search as an example, the search index of astragalus + soybean milk combination reached 501,000, far exceeding the search index of 371,000 soybean milk.
Source above: Giant Calculations
Why Astragalus Soy Milk?
In fact, in recent years, there have been many attempts to make soy milk healthy.
Yonghe King and Novozymes have launched probiotic ice soy milk; Southern Black Sesame launched five black soybean milk powder; Arowana has launched a series of Guochao soybean milk powder, adding roses, blueberries, wolfberries, inulin, etc. to the soybean milk powder; The new consumer brand [Xi Qo] added red dates, longan and nuts to soy milk; Nestlé has also launched acerola cherry soy milk powder.....
The uniqueness of astragalus soybean milk lies in finding the right "partner" that gives the product health attributes.
Astragalus soybean milk is looking for the existence of a health nourishment star in the hearts of the Chinese people - the same origin of food and medicine. It avoids the problem of low awareness of healthy raw materials in the exploration of functional health of some food and beverages.
At the same time, being everyday enough is a big advantage of this combination. Soybean milk has been very daily, and the homology of food and medicine is also from the daily life of Chinese people for thousands of years.
What's more, the homology of food and medicine + soy milk can handle consumers of different ages. A large category of users of soybean milk are middle-aged and elderly people, Chinese traditional food and medicine homology + soybean milk, for them can be described as a "trump card combination", whether it is receiving gifts from children, grandchildren, or chatting between old sisters are very face-to-face and handy.
And the same source of soy milk + medicine and food can also attract young consumers. Like astragalus soy milk attracts many people to make homemade because it is good for the skin.
Behind the popularity of astragalus soybean milk: expert endorsement and big names
Looking back on the road of small outbreak of astragalus soybean milk, there are several directions behind it:
Endorsed by experts, consumer demand emerges
Tracing the popularity of soybean milk is inseparable from the boost of experts in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. Ni Haixia, an expert in traditional Chinese medicine, once introduced the benefits of astragalus and soy milk for the skin in a video. This continues to circulate among consumers, and the scope of influence is becoming more and more extensive, so that when the astragalus soybean milk packaging products have not yet appeared in the market, consumers have taken the lead in brand enterprises and started to make themselves.
Source: Little Red Book
For enterprises to develop products, there may be two aspects of inspiration: on the one hand, you can pay attention to the content output of influential TCM experts and explore business opportunities; On the other hand, we carry out in-depth product development cooperation with influential Chinese medicine experts and professional bloggers to create unique product competitiveness.
Brands and big names have increased their weight
With the endorsement of experts and consumer self-control, brands are naturally keenly aware of the opportunities behind them. Gu Chuyuan, Tong Ren Tang, Qin Wanxiang, Hu Quanzhai and so on have put astragalus soybean milk powder products on the shelves. According to the insight of the Zhitiqiao Nutrition and Health Insight Research Institute, as of now, the number of brands of Astragalus soybean milk powder products on the online platform of the Tao system is about 40.
On June 5th, Joyoung Soybean Milk announced the launch of a new [Astragalus Codonopsis Soybean Milk Powder], which added Astragalus membranaceus from Minxian County, Gansu Province and Codonopsis from Longxian County, with a protein content of 18g per 100 grams, which is about equal to the protein content of 2.7 cups of milk.
Source: Joyoung soybean milk
The addition of giant names in the field of soybean milk has added an important fire to the growth of astragalus soybean milk.
At present, the average price of astragalus soybean milk ranges from 9.9 to 20 yuan per pack. Compared with the price of ordinary soybean milk, the price of the product has basically increased by 0.5 times or 1 times. However, it is worth noting that there are many brands of astragalus soybean milk, including big brands such as Joyoung soybean milk, and little-known stores, which can be described as mixed, which may lead to uneven quality of products, but hurt the entire market and consumers' enthusiasm for buying.
Food and Drug Homology + Food & Beverage: Is the Supply Chain Keeping Up?
In addition, from the perspective of product development, soybean milk + food and drug homology still faces challenges in many aspects: especially in the two directions of flavor and supply chain support.
Edible and medicinal substances such as ginseng, turmeric, angelica, cloves, Huoxiang, etc. have a distinct taste, whether it is combined with soybean milk or other food and beverages, how to balance the flavor and taste of the product, and meet the needs of consumers who are not only easy to use, beautiful but also delicious.
The second is the challenge of the food and drug homologous supply chain.
At present, a major problem in the development of the domestic food and drug homology industry lies in the industrial chain. At the upstream planting end, the planting area of raw materials is scattered, the quality of raw materials is difficult to guarantee, and the supply of raw materials is unstable, and the price and cost fluctuate greatly. In the production and processing of the midstream, there is still a lack of raw material suppliers for further primary processing and deep processing; In the downstream terminal market, product development and product quality also need to be continuously explored.
As a media that is optimistic about and continues to promote the homology of food and drugs, the plant bridge specially started from the forum and the exhibition area at the AAES2024 conference, hoping to build a gathering place for the food and drug homologous supply chain, help terminal brands and foundries find high-quality and reliable food and drug homologous raw materials, and help upstream raw material growers/planting enterprises and raw material suppliers to link downstream customers.
1. Industry Vertical Conference: [Medicine and Food Homology|Tonic Upgrading Development Summit] (October 12)
At present, it has confirmed that the sharing enterprises are: Amway, Yanzhiwu, Infinitus, Wugu Mill and other leading brands in the industry;
2. Special support for the exhibition area:
●[Medicine and Food Homology Zone]: Mainly for medicine and food homology raw material enterprises, foundries, brand enterprises, etc.
●[Rural Revitalization · Food and Nutrition Agriculture Zone]: Mainly for upstream planting farmers and planting enterprises with the same source of medicine and food.
●[Special Zone for the Integrated Development of Local Resources and Health Industry]: It is mainly for local governments and industrial parks related to the homology of medicine and food with local characteristics.
Relevant enterprises are welcome to contact us for cooperation.