The Chinese bakery business is booming, but the market is also extremely volatile. There is no better moment to enter the Chinese market for suppliers of any bakery ingredient than now.

I have collated a few statistics that are recent enough to give a rough impression of the size of the market.

The first table indicates the development of the value of the market and the projection of the near future.

Some interesting details about consumer behaviour:

• Whether online or offline, women are still the main consumers of baked goods in China.
• In terms of age, 70% of consumers are between the ages of 21 and 40.
• In terms of price, consumers spending RMB 20 – 40 in a single consumption constitute the largest segment (35. 8%).

The next table shows the number of bakery shops in a selected group of major cities. This tells something about the geographic distribution. However, the smaller provincial cities currently show the highest growth.

We should not forget the focus issue of this blog: food ingredients. This graph shows the major cream suppliers to the Chinese baking industry. As you can see, the market still consists of a few major brands and a large number of small suppliers.

You can find more information in earlier posts, e.g. about flour (improvers), baking enzymes, leading bakery Holiland, a small private bakery in Beijing, bread, and you can find more by using the search function in this blog (try pastry, cake, biscuit, etc.). Contact me for proprietary studies.

Peter Peverelli is active in and with China since 1975 and regularly travels to the remotest corners of that vast nation. He is a co-author of a major book introducing the cultural drivers behind China’s economic success. Peter has been involved with the Chinese food and beverage industries since 1985.