Mintel, the market analyst, found that more than a third of Chinese online buyers placed orders with Down Under companies across al categories. Around 25% of these were for food and beverage shipments.
In terms of baby food and related products, Chinese consumers are most likely to look towards the South Pacific nations. Mintel’s figures show that New Zealand has been the favourite in this category, currently attracting a whole 22% of online import shoppers, closely followed by Australia.
Overall, 33% of those who have purchased imported goods online have bought baby food and products from the two countries.
Mintel's research also indicates that imported alcoholic drinks have also become very popular, with around one in five Chinese online consumers ordering their grog from Australia. This figure dips slightly to 16% for Kiwi liquor purchases.
Revealing the data in Sydney, Laurel Gu, Mintel’s research director, said Chinese shoppers were becoming increasingly sophisticated while remaining influenced by the reputations of source countries.
“We see a lot of growth opportunity for brands in Australia and New Zealand to target Chinese consumers.
“With Australia and New Zealand both having reputations for their strong focus on natural ingredients, food and drink companies could see great success by tapping into Chinese consumers’ healthy lifestyle, particularly within snacking occasions,” Gu added.
Furthermore, the analyst estimated that the total combined online cross-border e-commerce market in China, known locally as haitao,grew by a factor of 10 from RMB53bn (US$7.7bn) in 2011 to RMB626bn (US$91bn) in 2016. This represented an average annual growth rate of of 64%.
From 2016 to 2021, however, growth is expected to slow to a still-strong 15%, to reach a total value of RMB1.3tr (US$189bn).
“While still strong, China’s haitao market has nearly reached its peak because many foreign brands are now already established within the China market, selling either through domestic physical stores, or domestic online shopping websites,” Gu said.
This is because neighbouring countries now have their own popular online shopping destinations for Chinese consumers. South Korea, for example, leads for shopping in beauty and personal care (45%), while Japan is the most popular country for personal electronics (28%). Outside Asia-Pacific, France is popular for alcoholic drinks (36%).
Beyond product quality, Gu said the key to grabbing Chinese consumers’ interest is through convenience and customer service.
“Brands in Australia and New Zealand could consider selling their products via China’s leading domestic shopping websites, providing Chinese-language customer service, offering fast delivery services, as well as implementing the usage of third-party payment systems.” she added.
More stories from China…
Party pressures ministry to impose stricter punishments for adulteration
China’s lack of specific penalties for food adulterers and counterfeiters is leaving a “legal vacuum” that will only encourage criminals to take their chances with the law.
That’s according to a hard-hitting editorial in China Daily, a mouthpiece of the Communist Party, that puts the Ministry of Public Security on notice to push through legal reforms.
The ministry, which said it investigated 12,000 food-related crimes last year and crushed a number of unlicensed factories and sales networks, has announced it will work with other government institutions to tighten legal penalties.
The newspaper said a new push towards the “improvement of judicial interpretations” to make fake-food production a crime would bring about an effective deterrent to criminals operating on the periphery of the food industry.
“China has put in place a relatively developed legal system to combat food and drugs counterfeiting, but both an amendment to Criminal Law and a new Food Safety Law [that come into effect in 2015] fail to stipulate specific penalties for those producing adulterated and counterfeit products,” the leader said.
“Such a legal vacuum has left space for producers of counterfeit food and pharmaceuticals to dodge their deserved criminal responsibilities. Thus, it is necessary for the authorities to add targeted clauses to the country's laws.”
The manufacture of fake and adulterated foods has been gathering steam in recent years. Perhaps the best known adulteration was the melamine scandal of 2008, when chemicals added to infant formula produced by Sanliu led to six deaths and hundreds of thousands of casualties.
Lately, authorities have been forced to tackle growing instances of plastic rice being added to edible rice, years-old chicken feet bleached in acid so they appear fresh and counterfeiters dressing up substandard formula in brand-name packaging, to name a few.
China News, whose views can often be traced directly to the government’s ruling clique, said that stricter laws and penalties were not the only way to eradicate nefarious foods, but they would deter some individuals from the practice.
“Given that the manufacturing of fake and shoddy foods… has escalated to be a major threat to public health. Lowering the threshold for their definition as a crime is thus of practical significance,” it said.