There is another competitor in the vegetable yogurt area. On July 6, a reporter from Beijing Commercial Daily noticed that Jinmailang had applied for a patent for Ciobani's "plant yogurt" packaging bottle, and registered the 29th category of yogurt trademark in July 2020, which was also considered by industry as Jinmailang.

According to industry insiders, Jinmailang's entry is mainly attracted by the high growth space of vegetable yogurt in the future. Relevant data shows that the global vegetable yogurt market share will reach 6.46 billion US dollars by 2027.

As the market continues to expand, Nongfu Spring, Sanyuan, Dali Foods, VV, Yangyuan Foods and other brands have joined the vegetable yogurt market competition. The industry believes that although the global vegetable yogurt market has a bright future, vegetable yogurt industry is still in its infancy in the Chinese market, and problems such as low customer acceptance and high prices are still pain points for industrial development.

Giants enter the vegetable yogurt area

The patent pattern of the "Chopani" packaging bottle applied by Jinmailang shows that the bottle is marked with keywords such as Chopani 1920, Greek oatmeal flavor, 0 sucrose, 0 cholesterol, 0 animal fat, and vegetable yogurt. In addition, in the trademark application records of ChinaTrademark.com, Jinmailang registered Ciobagni-related trademarks as early as July 2020 in the 29th category of yogurt, lactic acid beverages and other sub-categories.

From the perspective of industry insiders, from the above-mentioned series of actions, Jinmailang may intend to enter the vegetable yogurt market. The high growth space of vegetable yogurt is an important reason for Jinmailang's entry. According to Euromonitor data, the global vegetable yogurt market was worth US$974 million in 2018, and the global vegetable yogurt market reached US$2.02 billion in 2020, achieving rapid growth. At the same time, it is expected that from 2020 to 2027, the global vegetable yogurt market will continue to grow at an average annual growth rate of 18.9%. It is estimated that by 2027, the global vegetable yogurt market share will reach 6.46 billion U.S. dollars.

In this context, Nongfu Spring, Sanyuan, Dali Foods and other brands have also joined the vegetable-based yogurt market competition. In 2019, Nongfu Spring launched plant-based yogurt with live bacteria, focusing on "0 cholesterol, 0 lactose, low saturated fat"; in November 2019, St Hubert, a French company acquired by Sanyuan Foods and Fosun, launched five A plant-based yogurt; at the end of 2019, Six Walnut launched its first sterilized room-temperature fermented walnut milk; in January this year, Dali Foods also announced that its representative brand of plant nutrition, Doubendou, launched a plant-fermented room-temperature plant yogurt——Flogurt Zhiyou Home.

In addition, the soy milk brand VV, Germany's Meiren Foods, and the six walnut parent company Yangyuan Foods have also paid attention to the plant yogurt competition and launched corresponding new products.

According to Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in the Chinese food industry, after nearly 30 years of development, Chinese yogurt has entered a "post-yogurt era", and the market structure will undergo new changes, that is, entering the segmented market. Plant yogurt is a differentiated category of yogurt. With the continuous upgrading and optimization of popular lifestyles, and the rise of the new generation of consumer groups, plant yogurt products with large health attributes have become the current consumer choice trend.

Regarding the reasons for Jinmailang's layout of the plant yogurt market and specific plans, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily interviewed the relevant person in charge of Jinmailang, but did not receive a reply as of press time.

High pricing and low customer acceptance

From the perspective of industry insiders, it is a process to recognize plant yogurt. At present, Chinese consumers are still in the initial stage of understanding plant yogurt. The plant yogurt industry still faces low acceptance, high prices and bad taste in the Chinese market.

According to statistics from the market research and consulting company Mintel, in the global new product release category distribution from April 2019 to March 2020, plant-based yogurt in the Asia-Pacific region only accounts for 5% of all plant-based categories in the Asia-Pacific region, which is the lowest among all regions.

The high premium may be one of the reasons for the slow development of plant yogurt. A reporter from Beijing Business Daily found that Nongfu Spring’s 135 g plant yogurt is about 11-16 yuan, Dali Food’s original bean curd yogurt 205 g is priced at about 7 yuan, and 100ml coconut yogurt is priced at about 15 yuan. Traditional yogurt is about 4-5 yuan. For example, a cup of 139 g old yogurt is priced at about 4.5 yuan.

In this regard, Song Liang, an independent dairy analyst, said, “At present, our country’s yogurt market is developing toward high-end. Market. Although some products are priced at high prices, they tend to be discounted. This high-end concept gives the plant yogurt brand an illusion. The high-priced vegetable yogurt that ignores the high-priced positioning does not meet the needs of the current market "

There are voices in the market that neither plant-based yogurt nor ordinary yogurt is high-end and healthier. "In terms of ingredients, vegetable yogurt uses several types of sugar and probiotics like ordinary yogurt, such as bulgaria bacteria. From the perspective of consumer demand, vegetable yogurt is more suitable for those who have milk allergy and lactose intolerance because it does not use cow milk. According to relevant industry insiders.

In addition, in terms of taste, due to the characteristics of plant-based raw materials, unsatisfying taste and flavor will often appear after fermentation. Pan Yu, DSM Food Ingredients Technology Affairs Manager, publicly stated that there are two main problems with the taste of plant-based yogurt in China. In terms of flavor, fishy taste and astringency are heavy, and the after taste is bitter; in terms of taste, the viscosity is high and the taste is rough. This makes consumers who buy it out of curiosity and early adopters or pursuing health lose the desire to repurchase.

In this regard, Song Liang also said that ordinary yogurt will add animal fat and milk fat, which can bring a silky and sweet taste; for some pure vegetable yogurt without animal fat and milk fat, there is still a certain difference compared with ordinary yogurt.

In Song Liang's view, as a sub-category of plant yogurt, there will be a relatively good trend, but the overall scale will not be too big. Although there has been a certain increase in vegetable yogurt, it is barely noticeable, and it is difficult to achieve substantial growth in recent years.

Beijing Commercial Daily reporter Guo Xiujuan Wang Xiao Trainee reporter Yan Hui

Translated by YAO Yuhou

Edited by LIU Yu