China Agri News Week 27, 2020
This is the news overview of week 27 from the agricultural team of the Netherlands Embassy in Beijing.
Growing Obese Population Pushes Meal Replacement Consumption
According to a recent study, the obese population (BMI>30) in China currently exceeds 60 million people. Adding to that, the overweight population (BMI>25) counts approximately 200 million people. These two figures providing fertile ground for the growth of the meal replacement sector in China.
In 2022 it is expected that the meal replacement market in China will reach a total value of 120 billion yuan. In recent years the meal replacement market in China continued to rise, however, product repurchase rate is low. Reason for this might be that meal replacements are often cold ready-to-eat foods, something that does not align with the dietary patterns of Chinese people. Another reason could be that Chinese food choices are remarkably diverse, and tastes vary significantly according to geography. For the meal replacement market to grow faster, it will require Chinese consumers to expand their food choices even further and to accept foods that do not align with traditional Chinese eating habits (source: Chemlinked).
New Swine Flu Found in China
Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study published on Monday in the US science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009. It possesses “all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans”, say the authors, scientists at Chinese universities and the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to blood tests that showed up antibodies created by exposure to the virus, 10.4 per cent of swine workers had already been infected. The tests showed that as many as 4.4 per cent of the general population also appeared to have been exposed. The virus has therefore already passed from animals to humans, but there is no evidence yet that it can be passed from human to human (source: SCMP).
Short News:
- The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs launched a strategic cooperation with Alibaba. Both parties will cooperate on the development of e-commerce platforms, online financial service innovation and digital rural governance (source: Farmers’ daily, June 29th).
- China’s e-commerce giant JD.com has launched its first franchised community fruit store in one of Beijing’s residential compound areas. It’s the latest community shop model developed by JD Fresh, JD.com’s fresh food business, to empower traditional ‘mom-and-pop’ stores, which often face challenges of quality procurement, transportation and storage (source: Fruitnet).
- China’s demand for children's milk powder is trending upwards and is enticing established players and new entrants to develop products. This is remarkable since the number of newborn babies in China in 2019 decreased with 580 thousand compared to the year before. The total market value is not estimated to be 2 billion yuan (Chemlinked).