text/Seafood Guide (seafood-guide) Li Shuai
China Fisheries Channel original report, when China’s epidemic was at its worst in February, many central hospitals such as Wuhan Tongji Hospital, People’s Hospital, Zhongnan Hospital, and Leishen were in the eye of the storm. The construction site of Shanshan Temporary Hospital received a batch of special donated materials - canned tuna - sent from Shanghai. All of a sudden, photos of nurses on the front lines and workers at Leishenshan eating lunch boxes and instant noodles with canned tuna flooded WeChat Moments.
It is understood that this small can with the image of King OSCAR printed on it and packaged in "royal red" comes from Thailand Wansheng . However, we noticed that the world's largest canned tuna manufacturer currently does not sell canned tuna in the Chinese market. This discovery is quite surprising, but upon closer inspection, it seems reasonable.
Based on the above background, Seafood Guide chatted with Lu Libin, general manager of Taiwansheng China, and listened to him tell the story behind Taiwansheng cans.
The whole world is grabbing cans! Except for the Chinese
With the outbreak of the global epidemic, canned food has become a veritable scarcity.
As of 5 pm on April 9, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide exceeded 1.51 million. No matter how careless it was before, panic hoarding of goods during the doomsday is now on the agenda of people all over the world.
Foreigners can go to great lengths to grab cans. Their goals were unified, their steps were determined, and they all focused on the cans on the shelves.
The picture comes from Weibo
Americans stock up on cans at home, the picture comes from Twitter
Looking at China, even when the epidemic was at its worst, few people cared about the cans on supermarket shelves. This strong sense of contrast can also be seen in the "China Canned Industry Production, Sales Demand and Investment Forecast Analysis Report". The per capita annual canned consumption in the United States is about 90 kilograms, that of Western Europe is about 50 kilograms, that of Japan is 23 kilograms, and that of China is only 1 kilogram.
has a view, "The main reason is that the government has taken very effective measures to prevent the epidemic, ensure people's livelihood supply, and maintain social stability. In many places, consumers can actually go out for shopping. In Wuhan, where the situation is most serious, communities are Direct delivery of ingredients and dishes.”
The operation of the entire society has not really stopped. Moreover, consumers can still buy the foods we are used to every day through e-commerce and delivery services. The epidemic has not changed the eating habits of Chinese people much, and canned food is not as popular as in Europe and the United States.
"Canned = not fresh, must have preservatives added"? There are too many consumer biases and misunderstandings!
Regarding the “canned culture” that is very different between us and foreign countries, Lu Libin said that this is due to many reasons.
"First of all, the difference in dietary structure between China and the West is the starting point. In quite a few European and American countries, canned food is an essential product in the daily diet, and its status is even close to that of a staple food. Just like rice and noodles in Chinese food, it is the main source of nutrition. And in In China, even if canned food practitioners don’t want to admit it, the fact is: canned food has never become an important category in Chinese people’s daily diet. "
" Secondly, in China, people have never been interested in 'processed foods' such as canned food. The food culture that has been passed down for thousands of years, "You never tire of fine food, never tire of fine food" has deeply influenced the Chinese people. The ingredients must be "fresh" and the taste must be "beautiful". In most cases, canned food is indeed difficult to obtain. Compared with the delicious and refreshing feeling brought by fresh food, "
" Furthermore, Chinese consumers have deep-rooted misunderstandings about the nutritional safety of canned food, that is, food with a long shelf life must be added to the food. People talk about the discoloration of preservatives. For manufacturers, it is inevitable that they are innocent and aggrieved.
The misunderstanding actually stems from ignorance. The principle of preservation in the canned industry has not been fully understood by the outside world, not to mention that the appearance of canned food is longer than that of preservatives. Much earlier, the current sophisticated sealing technologies - canning, venting, sealing, sterilization, cooling, etc., have long ago surpassed preservatives. In fact, canning relies on creating a vacuum environment so that bacteria cannot grow. To protect food from spoilage, adding preservatives is completely unnecessary and unnecessary."
For example, the production of canned sardines requires two high-temperature sterilizations and then exhaust treatment to ensure an absolute vacuum sealing environment. It only takes 30 minutes for sardines to be directly cooked and canned from the sea to the ship!
As long as you go to the supermarket, you will find that as long as the canned food is produced by a regular factory, the ingredient list is very short, and there will be no confusing chemical additives.
The ingredient list of canned tuna is very short and does not require preservatives. The picture comes from Weibo
Helplessly reduced to cat and dog food, can canned food really conquer the stomachs of Chinese people?
When I saw some consumers using canned tuna as cat and dog food, I also thought, why do people Will canned food become pet food in China? From my personal understanding, although China has a long history of domesticating wild animals in captivity, it has never formed a pet food culture. Looking back carefully, we have never developed a product specifically for pets. Food!
For a long time, the pets raised by the Chinese have eaten the same food as their owners. However, in modern times, with the introduction of Western culture, special packaged foods for pets gradually appeared on the market, because of the Chinese pet food culture. It started late and started from scratch, largely based on the mature market practices of Western countries. Therefore, canned food, which is also an "imported product", has become the first choice of many pet owners due to its safety, nutrition, convenience and convenience. Canned food developed for humans has been reduced to cat and dog food in China. Many people feel sad, and it also affects some people's opinions. "If people don't eat it, they feed it to pets, which means canned food is not good." "I think this is a fallacy. Canned food can be used as pet food, which exactly reflects its various advantages, such as nutrition, safety and convenience. It is the most ideal form of food.
The picture comes from the Internet
"In China, consumption One of the most important selection criteria for food for consumers is definitely "taste". Only if our taste buds find it delicious will we repurchase it. Even if it is a nutritious meal with the most scientific nutritional ratio, consumers will never buy it a second time because of the bad flavor. At this point, could the flavor of the can be improved? "
Lu Libin responded, "It should be admitted that canned food is often not fresh and tastes so refreshing. But I think food actually has multiple functions, and consumer selection criteria also have many different factors. For example, if fitness enthusiasts eat bland chicken breasts and whole grains, they will give up some taste demands for the sake of health standards. ”
As for some recognized “junk foods”, everyone knows that they are very unhealthy. But they often taste very good and food lovers like to eat them. These consumers will lower their concern about health for the sake of taste. There are also some Michelin restaurants , consumers commented that it was neither delicious nor expensive, but there was still an endless stream of people queuing up to make reservations. Why? Because the restaurant creates a very elegant environment and the consumption experience is very pleasant.
Therefore, in human life, food sometimes satisfies food and clothing. Sometimes it is about emotions (like a candlelight dinner) and the complex attributes and functions of food. It is not necessary and impossible for a food to be comprehensive in every aspect.
There is also the taste issue you mentioned, consumers. The standards for scoring food are inconsistent, and there has never been a unified standard for taste. People in the south, people in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou eat spicy food, and people in Shanghai eat sweet food. There are huge regional differences. Even the ancients lamented that "heavy taste is difficult to adjust" and they pursue a flavor. It is difficult to satisfy all consumption.
Original and seasoned canned tuna
According to our own market research, the most popular products are often the original flavor, while the seasoned products become It is niche, but it limits consumers' choices and loses the possibility of subsequent processing. So my next understanding is that the manufacturer's products are only 99% finished, and consumers can add different products according to their own preferences. excipients.
Canned food that everyone ignores, a "heart-warming" ingredient during the fight against the epidemic! The medical staff all said yes!
As mentioned at the beginning, during the emergency period of the Wuhan epidemic, Taiwansheng reached a consensus with the Thai headquarters to allocate a batch of products and delivered them to the medical workers and project builders of Wuhan hospitals overnight, and this batch of relief supplies was being It is KING OSCAR canned tuna. When
reviewed the decision to donate cans, Lu Libin said: "Taiwansheng has always paid attention to the trend of the epidemic in Wuhan, hoping to do its meager contribution to society, and has been thinking about what we can do for Wuhan. Later we discovered At that time, it was difficult for logistics terminals and cold chains to ensure timeliness, and front-line medical staff did not have the conditions to cook frozen seafood. In many cases, they could not cook on open flames, on time, lacked refrigerators, etc. "
" canned food was undoubtedly the best choice during special times. Food suitable for emergency use. Fortunately, our canned tuna, which is "full of nutrients, high in protein, low in fat, and rich in omega-3," has also successfully provided nutritional support for the anti-epidemic angels. ”
After opening the can, the canned tuna is colored. Full of flavor, picture 1 is not canned tuna
"In fact, canned food has the unique advantages of safety, nutrition and convenience. We were also surprised to find that canned food is very suitable for Wuhan under the shadow of the epidemic. From the perspective of edible attributes, canned food is very Suitable for the needs of Wuhan's epidemic prevention. In the process of ensuring that medical workers must be nutritious and eat well, we and the whole society have also seen the value and role of canned products," Lu Libin added.
The value of canned food is gradually becoming apparent, and the possibility of restarting China’s canned tuna business cannot be ruled out!
Seafood Guide research found that although Taiwansheng is the world's largest canned tuna manufacturer, it has not yet introduced this product in the Chinese market. When talking about the topic of Taiwansheng’s canned business in China, Lu Libin said:
“Taiwansheng has not really launched our canned tuna business in the Chinese market. From 2003 to 2016, Taiwansheng once cooperated with Century Pacific in the Philippines. A joint venture of a food company, we have been operating the canned business in China for more than ten years. The brand we used at that time was called Xiandewei. After 2016, our joint venture business was split, and Taiwansheng began to engage in frozen seafood and fresh food business. The canned tuna business has been handed over to our partners in the Philippines, and we will continue to operate it under the brand "
". After the Wuhan donation, many industry partners asked us about our future intentions for canned tuna. After this incident, we are working on it. We do not rule out the possibility of restarting Taiwansheng’s canned tuna business in China. Because there is a consumer market with demand, we are very willing to use the KING OSCAR brand to return to the canned tuna industry in China.”
Report badmouths local manufacturers! Slow growth and declining profits! Does China’s canned food market still have potential?
The latest industry data report shows that many well-known domestic canned goods manufacturers have experienced the same problem - business growth has entered a bottleneck period in recent years. On this occasion, Taiwansheng is considering returning to the Chinese canned food market, which arouses curiosity and expectation.
When talking about the future growth potential and space of China's canned market, Lu Libin said: "Judging from the vertical category of canned tuna produced by Taiwansheng, not only has there been no global decline, but there will be a surge in the future. And the Chinese market , although the current growth rate is not large, it is stable and rising. "
In the future, the upgrade of our living habits and consumption trends will directly trigger the reshuffle and reorganization of the canned food market. The most intuitive evidence is that our parents’ generation purchased three meals a day from the vegetable market, but by my generation, it has become supermarkets, hypermarkets and community convenience stores. Looking further ahead, the trend of the new generation of young consumers is also gradually changing, including online shopping, community fresh food, group shopping, and food delivered to their homes without leaving home. Is this a change we could have imagined 20 years ago?
“An important change that the epidemic has brought to the seafood industry is that consumers will pay more attention to the source and supply chain of food.This will further promote the promotion of traceable products, and prepackaged foods (including canned foods) will have obvious advantages over live and frozen products.
Canned food is an industrial product. The factory can trace the entire process, strictly manage the entire supply chain, and establish industry quality standards. Although fresh food is good, it is difficult to guarantee various risks during the long process of transportation, storage and cooking. Farmers, distributors, and logistics are involved in too many links. When canned food comes out of the factory, these risks are all controllable. to minimize. "
" The future market of canned tuna is worth looking forward to, because the number of consumer groups in demand will continue to increase with the development of society. When young people with increasingly strong pursuit of health and quality become the main consumers, canned tuna will become a growing market. The volume market, especially now, is a positive trend for the Chinese market, which is still in its infancy. This market has great potential! ”
Reference:
1. The whole world is rushing for canned food, except the Chinese Jiuxing public account
2. Taiwansheng official information
3. China canned industry production and sales demand and investment forecast analysis report
[Keywords]: canned tuna, canned aquatic products Breeding
