The Food & Beverage Industry - Preview

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A cursory glance at a few key statistics will quickly reveal the size and potential of China’s food &
beverage industry. In 2011, the Middle Kingdom overtook the U.S. as the world’s largest consumer
market for food & beverage products. Driven by a string of food scandals, a preference for foreign
goods that are perceived to be safer shows no sign of abating, with 71 percent of Chinese people
considering food safety a concern in 2015. And the country increasingly has themeans topurchase
foreignproducts–averagedisposableincomelevelscontinuetoriseatanexponentialrate,doubling
fromRMB 15,000 in 2008 to RMB 31,000 in 2015.
But the vast opportunities and still nascent potential of the Chinese foodmarket should not be
viewedwithout their caveats. Competition is stiff, both fromother international companies and
growing domestic ones, and the regulatory environment is complicated, often inconsistent,
and still very much a work in progress for the several government agencies tasked with
managing it. In the last two years alone, there have been numerous new laws introduced
with the intention of either simplifying or expanding the legal framework of the industry.
The limitedscopeof thismagazinedoesn’t allowus to tackleall of these issues. Instead, in thisedition
of China Briefing, we examine two areas of Chinese food regulations most pertinent for foreign
investors today – licensing and certification, and food safety standards. Both have undergone
significant change in recent years, altering the way in which foreign companies must engage
with the food & beverage industry, and must be thoroughly understood prior to market entry.
As China’s food & beverage industry continues to develop and diversify, having a handle on
the key market trends and regulatory hurdles will be essential for foreign hope
that this issue of China Briefing equips your company with some of the tools that it will need
to compete in the market.
This Month’s Cover Art
刘卉
Oil on canvas, 61x76 CM
Wan Fung Art Gallery
wanfung@12 .cn
+86 0760 8333 861
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professional advice when actively looking
to implement suggestions made within
this publication.
Introduction