1、 China's seasoning sauce industry has developed steadily and its production and sales have increased rapidly

The traditional sauce product is a kind of semi-solid or semi flowing viscous condiment with special color, aroma and taste, which is made from grain or oil crops and fermented by microorganisms. With the rise of some western eating habits in China, emerging sauce products made from fruits began to appear on a large scale, and their added value is much higher than that of traditional sauce products in China.

At present, the products sold on the market mainly include sweet flour sauce, Douchi, soybean sauce, Shacha sauce, chili sauce, Douban sauce, salad sauce, tomato sauce, meat sauce, sesame sauce, peanut butter, etc., with different tastes. According to statistics, the average number of single products of sauce production enterprises is about 13-14, which is much higher than that of other condiments. It can be seen that there are many kinds of sauce.

According to the China condiment Association's 2019 top 100 China condiment brand enterprises, 34 condiment companies were selected in the top 100 condiment companies in 2019, and the total output of top 100 enterprises was 910 thousand tons, and the top five enterprises accounted for 67%. The scale of sauce industry has increased year by year, and the brand effect of high-quality enterprises has begun to appear.

Statistics on seasoning sauce output and enterprise quantity in top 100 condiment enterprises of China in 2013-2019

With the improvement of domestic people's consumption level, the consumption subject and consumption concept of seasoning sauce have changed significantly. The post-90s gradually entered the workplace and became an important part of the consumer group, giving birth to new consumer preferences; Lifestyle changes, we prefer to enjoy "slow life", return to the family from the restaurant, and favor DIY and new consumption experience. At the same time, the consumption concept is also changing, and began to pay attention to natural, healthy, environmental protection and nutritious food, rather than affordable food.

These changes in consumption trends have had a great impact on the sauce industry, such as the transformation of the sauce enterprise's large single product strategy to the iterative product strategy: the R & D of iterative products continues to open up the blue ocean of the market, and the consumption potential of the sauce industry is further released.

According to the data, the total sales revenue of 34 sauce enterprises shortlisted in the top 100 seasonings in 2019 was 8.3 billion yuan, with a compound growth rate of more than 10%, of which the revenue of the top five enterprises accounted for 66%. Compared with the revenue of more than 90% of the top five enterprises in the seasoning industry such as soy sauce, monosodium glutamate and oyster sauce, the concentration of the sauce industry is low.

Statistics on sales of sauce companies in top 100 condiment enterprises in China in 2016-2019

2、 Seasoning sauce has gradually changed from obvious regional characteristics to adapt to the tastes of different regions

There are many kinds of sauces in China, and the products are widely distributed in different regions. The flavor of sauces in different regions is different, mainly including cooked soybean paste in Northeast China; Soybean paste, sweet flour paste and sesame paste in North China; Cantonese barbecue sauce, seafood sauce and Shacha sauce in South China; Guizhou oil pepper, flavor Douchi sauce and Douban sauce in Southwest China; Hunan chopped pepper sauce and Henan mushroom sauce in Central China. Different kinds of sauces have different tastes and are popular in different regions according to local eating habits.

In recent years, with the improvement of residents' living standards, the change of eating habits and the integration of food tastes, consumers' consumption habits of sauce are also changing. Some sauce products in line with the public taste show good market demand. Some sauce enterprises are no longer limited to the production and sales in a certain region, but start to develop products suitable for the tastes of different regions, and sell them in the national and even overseas markets with the development of channels.

Figure 3: distribution of production and sales of some seasonings

3、 China's seasoning sauce industry shows a trend of consumption upgrading, and diversification and health are the general trend

The price range of sauce products is large, ranging from a few yuan to several hundred yuan. The number of brands whose domestic product price is more than 30 yuan is increasing year by year, showing an obvious high-end development trend. The rise in the price of seasoning sauce is partly due to the increase in the cost of raw materials, manufacturing and labor, and partly due to the improvement of product quality and changes in consumer demand.

With the improvement of residents' consumption level, consumers pay more and more attention to the brand and quality of sauce, and are willing to pay higher prices to obtain better flavor sauce. At present, the consumption of high-end sauces is gradually increasing. In December 2020, the main price range of sauces sold through online channels is 10-20 yuan and 20-50 yuan, far exceeding that of sauces in other price ranges, indicating that medium and high-end sauces of 20-50 yuan are more and more accepted by most people, and there is a trend of upgrading the product structure to high-end in the sauces industry.

Distribution of sales volume in different price ranges of Chinese seasoning sauce online channels in December 2020

In the future, the enrichment of material life and consumers' pursuit of delicious food will gradually reduce consumers' recognition of general-purpose products, and then derive the diversified development of sauce types, so that consumers can choose different types of sauce for meals. In addition, as people pay more and more attention to health issues, in order to meet the healthy development trend of the market, sauce products with the concept of health will continue to be developed.

Chinese people have always said that food is the most important thing for the people. With the diversified and healthy development of the sauce industry, the catering industry and household consumption will make both efforts. The sauce industry will continue to grow steadily at a compound growth rate of 10%, and the market scale is expected to reach 13.5 billion yuan by 2025.

Table 5: Forecast of market scale of seasoning sauce industry from 2021 to 2025 (unit: 100 million yuan)