China's Ministry of Commerce releases snack food consumption trend report

On October 13, the Circulation Industry Promotion Center of the Ministry of Commerce of China released the report "Research on Snack Food Consumption Trends in the New Consumption Era". The report pointed out that with the continuous increase in the per capita disposable income of residents and the rapid development of emerging consumption formats, consumption upgrades have become consumption. The main theme of the market, consumer choices present a trend of individualization, hierarchy, and diversity. Snack food has increasingly become an important source of comfort, emotional connection and belonging for consumers, and will be further developed as the pace of consumption upgrades accelerates.

Research and analysis point out that consumers pay more attention to nutrition and health when choosing snack foods, and are more willing to pay for categories and brands. Consumer preference determines the rapid development of some categories, and the decline of some categories. Nuts contain a large number of essential fatty acids, amino acids, multiple minerals and other nutritional elements. Consumers give this category a nutritious and healthy consumption label, resulting in tree nut categories represented by pecans, macadamia nuts, almonds, etc. Demand has risen sharply.

The report pointed out: The three squirrels, whose core business is nut sales, relied on the Internet platform to sell pre-packaged nuts in 2012. Through sales model innovation, brand positioning innovation, and user experience innovation, the tree nut market has been prosperous, and the company has also developed rapidly. From 2016 to 2020, China's nut sales have ranked first and far ahead for five consecutive years, becoming the leader in this sub-category of nuts.

Driven by leading companies such as Three Squirrels and Qiaqia Foods, the fast-growing nut consumption has also promoted the rapid development of China's planting industry. Yunnan is becoming the largest macadamia nuts planting base in the world, and pecans have also been planted on a large scale in Anhui and other places, and a good pattern of localization and localization of imported nut seed cultivation has initially formed, which will promote rural revitalization and expanded the industrial base for increase farmers' income.

Snack food has diversified marketing channels in the industry due to the attributes of both standard and non-standard products. The study found that the channel development of the domestic snack food industry has gone through three cycles since 2000: a period of rapid growth dominated by offline channels before 2010, a period of rapid development dominated by online channels from 2010 to 2015, and the omni-channel exploration period gradually shifting to the integration of online and offline development since 2016.

Online top brands represented by the three squirrels have begun to expand offline channels and get closer to consumers by arranging offline stores. The company’s financial report for the first half of 2021 shows that as of the end of June 2021, there were 163 offline food stores for the three squirrels, with a revenue of 573 million yuan; 941 alliance stores, with a revenue of 363 million yuan, and offline distribution channel revenue 632 million yuan.

In order to further explore the offline market and serve consumers more fully, at the 9th anniversary celebration of The Three Squirrels on June 19 this year, the company’s founder and CEO Zhang Liaoyuan proposed the cross strategy of “Focus on Nuts, Multiple Brands, and Globalization”. Nuts entered the offline distribution market as the main category, achieving in-depth coverage from online to omni-channel.