According to the "Snack Industry Development Report under Consumption Upgrade" released by the Ministry of Commerce, in the intervening ten years from 2006 to 2016, the total output value of China's snack industry increased from 424.036 billion yuan to 2215.64 billion yuan, an increase of 422.51% [1]. The EqualOcean “White Paper on Fresh Snacks 2020” predicts that China’s snack industry size will exceed 4 trillion yuan by 2025. Different from the role of snacks to simply supplement dietary needs in the past, the rise of consumers' healthy awareness has led to the upgrading of snack categories.
According to the "Annual Report on Food Consumption Trends" jointly released by JD Data Research Institute and Nandu Consumption Research Institute, sales of fresh-claimed snack food increased by more than 200% year-on-year in 2018, and young consumers' enthusiasm for buying fresh food online was soaring [2]. According to CBNData, Tmall food consumption in 2020 shows three prominent trends of seasonal ingredients, fresh-keeping technology, and no additives. The fresh snack has been a new competitive segment in the snack industry.
Interpretation of the “fresh snack” concept
The production of fresh snacks is considered to be closer to ingredients origin, with less additive added, and shorter shelf life. The emergence and popularity of the concept of fresh snacks reflect consumers’ more vigorous pursuit of health and nutrition.
According to EqualOcean “White Paper on Fresh Snacks 2020”, consumers have fresh and healthy demands on every link of snack production and sales. The whole industry chain needs to be healthy-oriented and fresh-based, from product category development, raw material procurement, production and processing procedures, warehousing, and logistics to marketing and sales.
Source: EqualOcean
Therefore, fresh snack foods cover a wide range, including additive-free fruit crisps, seasonal nuts, nutritious energy bars, and refrigerated juice, etc.
Chinese snack giants are taking action
China’s leading snack companies, including Qiaqia, LYFEN, and Bestore, have started a competition in winning larger market shares by "fresh" claims.
In 2019, Bestore launched the "High-End Snacks" strategy and differentiated itself from other snack brands by introducing the concept of "Super Freshness [3]".
In 2019, Qiaqia proposed a new strategy to develop nuts as its second-largest business after melon seeds. The selling point for nuts is "fresh", with the slogan "mastering key preservation technology" marked on the package. Qiaqia’s "fresh" strategy mainly puts in place in the processing link [4]. It uses self-developed nitrogen-filled preservation technology and nut storage and processing technology to ensure the original flavor of nuts and reduce nutrient loss. The signature nut product has recorded a total sale of over 180,000 pieces on the Tmall flagship store.
In May this year, LYFEN announced the "fresh snack" brand upgrade strategy and set plans to become the "No.1 fresh snack brand" in the Chinese domestic market. LYFEN's "fresh" strategy focuses on five dimensions--raw materials, processing, packaging, sales, and delivery [5], which is in line with the whole chain freshness concept mentioned in the second part. It also expands fresh snack portfolios from nuts to other snack categories by rolling out fresh snack gift packs, including raisins, duck wing, jelly, etc. Up to now, the product has been sold over 60,000 pieces on the Tmall flagship store.
Another leading player Three Squirrels, the champion in snack sales in the 618 mid-year shopping campaign, has not formally proposed "freshness" as its essential strategy. However, it has put "freshness" in the second position only after "cheap & good" in its slogan "provide consumers with cheap & good, fresh, assorted and convenient happy snacks".
New fresh snack product launch
Recently, Bestore launched an “integrated nuts” product that promises "no more than 7 days from production to delivery". The brand claims that the whole chain of the new product from baking, packaging to delivery, is controlled within one week to ensure the “super freshness.” In contrast, the average time for a nut product to reach customers is about two weeks [6]. The product is composed of cashew nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, dried cranberries, dried red and blueberries, without the addition of flavors and pigments. In addition to ensuring the production time, Bestore promises "ten times overtime compensation" to build credibility. Consumers have favored this incredibly fresh experience. In just a month, the product’s daily orders reached 18,000 pieces [7].
***Disclaimer: All images used in this article are from the internet.
