Rising incomes and the extended family along with the retention of the one-child policy are combining to boost acceptance and expenditure on baby foods in China. This updated report from Access Asia includes formula milk, ready meals and other baby foods.
This report covers the market for baby foods in the People’s Republic of China. The report covers the following sectors: Formula milks; Dried baby foods; Other baby foods, including wet foods in jars, chilled foods and canned foods. China’s consumer market has developed very rapidly in recent years, and this has created much greater demand for more modern food products. Increased levels of average income have allowed consumers to buy better quality, more sophisticated food products, and nowhere has this been more in evidence than in the baby food market. Because of the One Child Policy, where most Chinese families are only allowed by the state to have a single child, or face strong penalties, parents tend to lavish a great deal of time, money and attention on their children. Not only parents, but the extended family also lavish attention on all children within the family. Such treatment has led to a phenomenon, whereby Chinese children have come to be dubbed “little emperors” due to the power they seem to wield within their own families. These children are lavished with the best foods, toys, educational equipment and attention. This has therefore had a direct effect on spending on baby foods, so important for the nutrition of young children in their crucial formative years. The demand for better quality products has come from parents being able to afford more to spend on feeding their babies. With more cash, parents have been looking for better quality products, and a greater variety of foods, in order to give their children a better, balanced diet. This demand is also leading to the development of more products containing added vitamins and minerals, along with products containing herbal medicines to help prevent diseases. The baby food market in China has therefore become much more sophisticated, especially as foreign competition has become ever more prevalent within the market. This more sophisticated market is creating whole new sets of opportunity for companies looking to become actively involved.