Some takeaways from the seminar of the just-ended 6th China (Shanghai) International Food Expo (China Food) in Shanghai:
1) More outsiders are entering the food industry, and with grand schemes and “missions”. The outsiders are from well-established giants in real estate, the IT industry, and electric household appliances, which have been battered in a drastically evolving market environment and anticipate a tougher life ahead should they continue what they have been doing all along. The fragmented and heretofore largely neglected agricultural sector is increasingly looked to as one of their next safe havens.
Greenland Group, a real estate company, announced its plans to boost its retailing of meat, aquatic food, dried and fresh fruit for the next few years. Over three years it has opened more than 40 supermarkets (G-Super) focusing on imported food and beverages in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and a few other cities.
Country Garden is urgently building up an investment team for agriculture, while Gree, Changhong and Haier, all electric household appliance makers, have all entered the agribusiness with different focuses and priorities.
In 2018 Legend Group established a department focusing on agribusiness investment while JD.com built an indoor farm with Japanese technology. Netease started raising pigs as early as in 2009.
2) More food companies are going downstream. Bright Food Group is apparently aiming to become a big central kitchen for the food service channel and individual consumers, joining Chia Tai (also known as CP Group) and New Hope. Bright Group has lately launched its prepared meals, adding on to its canned food, rice, dairy, soft drinks and wine.
3) China’s food giants are stepping up their overseas expansion. For instance Mengniu set up its factory late last year in Indonesia, while Yili acquired a Thai factory (Chomthana) and a New Zealand dairy company (Westland), although both have been a few years behind Niu Gensheng, a former CEO of Mengniu, who entered the Southeast Asian market in 2015 with his company, Aice, established in Singapore.
Changyu, a wine manufacturer, has been gobbling up one after another wine company in France, Spain, Chile and Australia since 2013. In 2018, its overseas wine business, with sales of RMB 656 million, finally turned into the black.
Note historially, China Food had been sponsored and organized by Shanghai's Bright Food Group. However, two years ago it handed over the role of organizing this food exhibition to a professional exhibition organizing company, trying to downplay its profile in the exhibition as it is believed that many food companies, usually competitors of Bright, will feel uneasy and reluctant to join the exhibition, explained Cao Shumin, deputy head of the China Food Industry Assocation, who was formerlly a senior manager in Bright. ###
【About the author】Sam Gao, founder of a Shanghai-based food industry advisory, TopGuide Advisory Shanghai, and consultant to Dong Feng Capital and Focal Point Capital. He started his food industry research career with Euromonitor in 2001. Later he moved on to work for Canadean, now part of Global Data Group, Mintel and Rabobank. He was a journalist with Xinhua News Agency in the 1990s and has been an avid writer ever since.
高海平，高纲企业管理咨询（上海）事务所联合创始人，从事行业研究与咨询，为企业策划股债权融资并作相关的文案写作。同时为汕头东峰消费品产业公司、富朋资本、上海弘章资本等投资机构担任顾问。
2000年离开服务了七年的新华社，进入市场研究行业，相继为Euromonitor、Canadean、Mintel和荷兰合作银行（Rabobank）研究部工作。但新闻写作一直是一个执着的爱好。
网友评论