Description
This new Access Asia report analyses the market for savoury snacks in China,
covering potato chips, popcorn, roasted seeds and beans and nuts. The report
includes coverage of market sectors, forecasts to 2005, pricing, key issues and
leading players.
Extract from Introduction
'... Executive Summary
China is changing rapidly and so are its tastes. As a consumer society emerges,
so new products are appearing with increasing regularity. Savoury snacks are
among them.
Rising average annual incomes and increased exposure to western and
international cuisines and a greater array of goods in the supermarket are all
combining to increase sales of savoury snacks in China.
Historically, savoury snacks within Chinese society had been restricted to dried
and preserved seeds and nuts. However, western influences have caused a
broadening of the Chinese palate, and this has included creating the demand for
a wider array of new savoury snacks.
Snacks are known in Chinese as "xiao chi" or "little eats" and were
traditionally sold by street vendors, who each specialised in one particular
type of snack. The general trend was to provide snacks that were cheap and
nourishing and included ingredients such as bean curd, batter etc.
Traditional Chinese snack foods were originally classified as either "wine
accompaniments" or "food accompanimentsh.
Despite the arrival of foreign food giants, which have made great inroads into
the market, the Chinese savoury snacks market remains dominated by products
suited to the local Chinese taste preferences, and so the domestic industry
remains buoyant and competitive.
Additionally, across China, many of the teahouses, which had been an important
market for the snack-sellers, have been steadily closed down and vendors have
been increasingly driven off the streets.
Report Coverage
This report covers the market for savoury snacks in the Peoplefs Republic of
China. The report covers the following sectors:
Chips and crisps – including potato chips, both flavoured and salted in
packets. Globally, potatoes are second in human consumption only to rice and the
leading snack food internationally. Potato chips (crisps) originated in the USA
as a = variation on the French-fried potato, in about 1853.
Flavoured nuts – including roasted and salted, as well as flavoured nuts
in packets.
Extruded snacks – including salted and flavoured extruded potato and corn
snacks in packets.
Ethnic snacks – including roasted seeds and nuts sold either in packets or
loose. Seeds are a particularly important product in the market with a wide
variety and use of flavours such as liquorice.
Popcorn - Popcorn consumption in China began early in the 20th century. Street
vendors traditionally, and still, popped corn on the streets of major cities
such as Shanghai and Beijing. Often , customers, usually children, brought their
own corn and paid a small fee for the popping.
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