Recently, the trend in the food sector reflects the change in consumers’ behaviors. The rise of healthy foods, which respond to the need for environmental and social sustainability, has become an entire lifestyle in China. Today’s consumers, instead of thinking in terms of nutritional needs or a diet, prefer to think in terms of well-being choices. After the boom of “Super-foods” such as goji berries, avocado mania, and Buddha bowls, 2019 is expected to grow products and services that help Chinese consumers achieve their “wellness” goals.
The 4 main trends in the Food Sector:

- Gut-healthy food
The spread of healthy foods for the intestine and fermented foods will explode in 2019: the goal is to consume less elaborate food, and increasing probiotics to improve the immune system. 2019 will be the year to try Kombucha, Kimchi, Sauerkraut, Tempeh, and Kefir.
- “Meat-free” snacks
In this case, it is not just vegan food, but products with meat that seems “real”, but it is not. The news of the first burgers of synthetic meat – fake, or alternative, if you prefer, is now a few months ago and the times that come will only confirm this trend, making predictions about six years ago, when the arrival of the test tube food. In this case, we do not talk about food made of cardboard or pills, but of vegetable-based products recreated to give the palate the appearance not only of the taste of meat but also of its fibrous consistency. In particular, it is expected that on the market not so many steaks or fillets of “fake” meat will be on the market, but snacks like dried meat strips or bacon-flavored fries without any kind of pig extract but flavored with some types of mushrooms.

- Milk and alternative water
The real trend of 2019, according to the market analysis of the last months of 2018, will be that instead of the types of milk we already know two new products will be established: oat milk – already well-known, but which will have a surge, considered – and Pea milk, really made by peas. Likewise, in the world of water, which until now had dominated the coconut water, new protagonists will arrive, like the already known but mistreated aloe water and the brand-new cactus water.
- Beauty & Food are the New Trend
Natural foods, good for the palate and for health, also become ingredients for personal care and hygiene.
We think of ingredients like almonds, oats, oils, honey, spices, and herbs. Personal care products increase, highlighting the presence of ingredients from the food world on the label, which also increases sales on the shelves of distributors. This emerges from the analysis conducted on approximately 11,500 produced by the Nielsen GS1 Observatory.
The positive perception of ingredients that have healthy properties (such as oats, almonds, honey, berries, seeds, and red fruits …) is also reflected in the beauty sector, where they are favored in the purchase of creams for the face and body, shampoos, hair masks. They are two-valued ingredients, which experience a moment of popularity both in the world of food and in that of beauty, and each of them reinforces the other in a virtuous circle.
Strategies to Market your Food products in China

China represents a huge business opportunity for anyone. But be careful how to move: you must always adopt appropriate marketing strategies, formulated to meet the needs of a particular audience, with characteristics, tastes, and habits completely different from ours.
Website / E-commerce professional

For selling products in China, it is essential to present yourself with a professional website or e-commerce. This does not mean simply translating your content into Mandarin. In fact, foreign sites are systematically blocked due to firewalls imposed by the central government. The problem does not arise when the site is built in China by purchasing a Chinese domain (.cn) and paying for a local hosting service. The first strategy, therefore, consists in creating a Chinese website, optimized SEO at least for the main Chinese Baidu engine (equivalent to Google) with texts strictly in Mandarin and graphics responding to oriental tastes. Here is some more information to guide you in creating websites in China.
SEM & PAY-PER-CLICK Campaigns

Many customers expect the contacts to arrive on their own once the site is published. This evaluation error is very frequent, but it is enough to coordinate the activities so as not to make mistakes. The marketing strategy to be undertaken immediately after the launch of the site is called SEM & PCC, a combination of advertisements on the Baidu search engine and on the network of websites, portals, magazines, and blogs that host this type of advertising. Broadly speaking, the old outbound marketing of radio and TV commercials, insertions in paper newspapers, leaflets, and so on, is moving on the Internet universe. More information can be found on the SEO, SEM & PPC pages in China.
Social Media Marketing and E-Reputation

To support the first two strategies we add social media marketing on WeChat and Weibo, two of the most used social networks by Chinese users, but also by companies, wholesalers, and other possible strategic partners of your business. It would be really unthinkable to manage a sales and promotion service for its products and services in China without the support of an updated profile on Wechat and Weibo. In addition, it is not to be underestimated, that in a country invaded by-products of low value and dubious origin, the construction of a good reputation on blogs, forums, and online newspapers.
Initially, this strategy serves to make a new Brand or product just launched on the market famous and credible, while later it is useful to monitor the trend of sentiment, that is to say, the opinions of customers on the network.

GMA provides assistance from every point of view, through a complete package of both the Social Media Marketing service and the online reputation service. Curious to know more? Contact us through our email or our site
2 comments
Pepe
Hello, I am a seafood distributor from Panamá. I am looking forward to send high quality fish to China. How should I start?
Dolores
Hello Pepe,
We have a wealth of experience in the Chinese sea food market!
Let’s have a call, so you can tell me more about your company and I’ll explain our solution in details