F&B industry bounces back over Spring Festival
China’s food and beverage industry rebounded to pre-COVID-19 levels during the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, with staycationers driving up takeout sales.
During the holiday week that ended on Feb 17, the total sales revenue of China’s F&B operators increased 358.4 percent compared with the same period in 2020, when COVID19 started to spread in the country. This was up 5.4 percent from that of 2019, according to the State Taxation Administration.
The country’s F&B sector “saw a marked improvement” during the holiday, said the Ministry of Commerce. It cited surveys conducted by industry associations and food delivery platforms, which showed 87 percent of F&B locations across the country remained open during the week and their total turnover rose 261 percent year-on-year.
According to the China Cuisine Association, the turnover of some businesses jumped 300 percent over the 2020 figures on Lunar New Year’s Eve.
Restaurants had an increase in footfall during the holiday compared with a year ago. But they were still feeling the impact of the virus as many customers heeded the government’s call to avoid gatherings and canceled their dine-in reservations for the holiday.
Some restaurants reported a cancellation rate of 90 percent, according to the CCA.
The takeout business boomed during the holiday. Data from food delivery service providers, as cited by the Ministry of Commerce, showed takeout sales across the country grew 154 percent over 2020 levels during the week.
One contributing factor for the increase in takeout orders was that many people who work away from their hometowns gave up their annual trip home and spent the holiday where they were to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection.
Zhu Xiaoliang, a senior official with the Ministry of Commerce, said on Feb 10 that about 48 million more people were expected to stay put in 36 major cities for the holiday compared with previous years.
The country’s major cities, home to large numbers of migrant workers, recorded the most takeout orders on Lunar New Year’s Eve. According to figures from food delivery service Meituan, as cited by Shanghai Securities News, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chongqing were its biggest spenders that day. Orders placed by Beijing-based users on that day grew 122 percent year-over-year.
According to data from food delivery platforms, 81 percent of customers who placed orders in a certain city during the holiday used their usual address, indicating that many people did not travel during the period, Shanghai news website Eastday reported. The figure for Beijing reached 94 percent this year, a considerable increase from a year earlier.
Xu Xinzhe, a staff member at Alibaba’s fresh food chain Fresh Hippo, told China National Radio that sales of ready-to-cook dishes quadrupled year-on-year during the holiday. “Some families who stayed put probably wanted to whip up a spread fairly quickly and therefore chose to purchase ready-to-cook dishes,” Xu said.
On Lunar New Year’s Eve and the two days immediately preceding it, sales of ready-to-cook reunion dinner takeouts increased fourfold year-on-year and orders for mealfor-ones doubled, the Ministry of Commerce said.
A lot of the staycationers were young people, most of whom grew up with the internet and are proficient users of online food ordering services, Lai Yang, executive vicepresident of the Commerce Economy Association of Beijing, told China Newsweek.
“Ordering ready-to-cook dishes online not only provides convenience for consumers, but also helps to prevent and control COVID-19. F&B operators can also recoup some of the losses from reduced in-store dining,” Lai said.
One staycationer surnamed He, a member of the post-1995 generation, told China Newsweek that ordering partially prepared reunion dinner kits online “saved a lot of hassle”. She said her cooking is getting rusty these days because the traditional methods of cooking are complicated and her work takes up a lot of her time.
Staycationers were also ordering food and drinks for family members back in their hometowns to express holiday greetings. The most popular purchases made on food delivery platform Eleme included reunion dinner packages, soft drinks and boxes of fruit, National Business Daily reported.