The future development direction of condiments

In the future, the development of condiments will benefit from the improvement of household consumption level and the promotion of increased attention to health. Although condiments do not account for a high proportion in the food industry, they are a typical small product with a large market. Unless the market fundamentals are subject to large fluctuations, the condiment market will continue to grow at a double-digit growth rate.

1. Segmentation and high-end

As people's per capita income level increases, their dietary requirements are becoming more and more refined. Consumers will pay more attention to the taste and quality of condiments rather than the price. At the same time, the awareness of segmentation of different condiments in cooking methods is also increasing. Therefore, the segmentation of condiments on the market continues to increase. For soy sauce alone, there are raw soy sauce, dark soy sauce, umami soy sauce, steamed fish soy sauce, etc. They have their own uses, such as umami soy sauce for dipping and cold salad; dark soy sauce for braised; steamed fish soy sauce for steamed fish. In recent years, the proportion of households with more than 2 bottles of soy sauce has been increasing. This type of soy sauce has the fastest growth rate, while the consumer group of ordinary soy sauce with poor flavor and low price is gradually shrinking.

Consumers' purchasing power for condiments is increasing, and their price acceptance is constantly improving, so products are also increasingly developing in the direction of mid-to-high-end. The market capacity of mid-to-high-end condiments will further expand, and the price of condiments will continue to rise. Haitian Flavor Industry has seized the international high-end market with mid-to-high-end condiments, and its export volume has maintained a growth rate of about 30% in the past two years.

2. Functional health

Consumers are also paying more and more attention to healthy, safe and nutritious condiments, and the research on the impact of food ingredients on health is constantly deepening. For example, in addition to the seasoning function, vinegar also has health functions such as promoting digestion, softening blood vessels, and sterilization, which is in line with people's trend of healthy consumption. At the same time, consumers are more concerned about some claims about natural and healthy concepts in products, and tend to buy products without preservatives, pigments or genetically modified ingredients. The price of healthy condiments is generally significantly higher than that of ordinary condiments. Taking soy sauce as an example, the price of ordinary special and first-grade soy sauce in China is 6-8 yuan, zero-additive soy sauce is 10-25 yuan, and organic soy sauce is 30-50 yuan. Condiments are moving towards health and functionality, which will also push the industry price up gradually.

3. Production scale

The condiment market is affected by local customs and taste preferences, resulting in the proliferation of local brands and the lack of strong national brand condiments. At the same time, due to the low technical threshold for condiment product production, intensified competition in the industry has hindered the healthy development of the condiment industry. Therefore, we should focus on product innovation and process improvement, form technical barriers, reorganize and merge to increase industry concentration, expand production scale to open up a larger market, and break the traditional market dominated by regions. At present, my country's condiments have formed a relatively stable brand pattern. Among the relatively mature categories, leading companies have a strong market share and brand influence, and some new categories are also working hard to open up the market.

4. Complexity

In my country, catering purchases, household consumption, and food processing account for about 60%, 30%, and 10% of condiment consumption channels respectively. The catering industry consumes the most condiments and consumes them frequently, so catering is the main driving force for the rapid development of condiments. With the rise of mass catering, the industry has gradually recovered from the trough of anti-three public consumption. In 2015 and the first nine months of 2016, the catering industry's revenue increased by 7.0% and 6.2% year-on-year respectively, and the growth rate tended to stabilize.

The catering industry has increasingly rich cuisines, and chefs are no longer satisfied with panacea-style condiments. They prefer more convenient special and complex condiments, which has led to the emergence of compound soy sauce seasonings, such as steamed fish, cold salad, braised, and mixed noodles. These compound soy sauces have strong premium capabilities and higher gross profit margins compared to ordinary soy sauces. This is also a major trend in the development of the condiment industry in the future.