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2016 “CHOWHOUND” CITIES RANKING RELEASED, SOUTHERN CITIES TAKE THE LEAD

2016 “food and drink white paper” gives a comprehensive reading of Chinese online food shopping, covering products category, consumer preferences, geographic characteristics and other aspects, providing a good guideline for the incoming Spring Festival shopping.

According to data from Amazon China, consumers pay more attention to nutrition and quality in food purchase. In terms of fresh food, imported meat and seafood has become new favorites. Imported wine sales continue to rise. It’s a new trend to match Chinese meals with wine in holidays. 2016 “chowhound” cities ranking by Amazon China just came out, with 7 southern cities enter Top 10 list.

Guangzhou and Shenzhen come out top in the list. According to breakdown of urban consumer data, southern cities not only love to eat but also are more able to drink. They take the lead in consuming Western food, Japanese food and liquor products among other categories.

In the top 10 cities consuming western food, 6 are southern cities. In the top 10 cities consuming Japanese food, 6 are southern cities. Southern cities consume twice volume of liquor (2.5 times of wine) than northern cities.

Top 10 “chowhound” cities’ geographic preference in food consumption

In Guangzhou, Danish cookies and Californian raisins have outstanding sales. So do milk chocolate, black chocolate, and white chocolate. While in Shenzhen, consumers love tea, jujube and cereal. In Beijing, milk, cereal and imported natural mineral water are the most popular. In Shanghai, imported coffee powder, grain chocolate, imported steak and seafood sell great. Shanghai has a very western stylish diet.

Great business opportunities in the highly dispersed and competitive imported food industry

Imported food industry is a highly dispersed market where players are generally small sized. Few enterprises sell more than 1000 kinds of products. Most of them are still at primary level in business operation. It’s a highly dispersed and competitive natural market.

Geographic shift on imported food consumption

At present, the main consumption areas of imported food are first-tier cities in South China and East China. Along with the rising of second and third tier cities, development of urbanization and improvement of consumption level, high-end consumer groups in second and third tier cities begin to purchase imported food. The trend will continue in the next few years, which brings great opportunities for imported food companies.


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