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S'pore food brands taste success in China

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Singapore food brands are cooking up a storm in China.

Local food companies are riding on the Chinese consumer boom, with people becoming more health- conscious and increasingly seeking out high-quality international flavours.

The potential of China's huge market more than makes up for the challenges, which include keeping food quality consistent and dealing with regulatory hurdles, companies say.

China remains one of the top markets for Singapore companies in general, including food companies, said Mr Ho Chee Hin, group director of International Enterprise (IE) Singapore's China group.

HUGE MARKET

This comes as the country is on track to become the world's largest consumer market by next year.

"Its huge domestic market, with consumers willing to pay for quality food and try new concepts, makes it very attractive to our food players," Mr Ho adds.

IE - which is merging with Spring Singapore to form the Enterprise Singapore agency - has worked with about 25 Singapore food companies entering Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

Restaurant group Jumbo is among the companies tapping prospects in China. The company first ventured into China in Nov 2013 with the opening of its first Jumbo Seafood outlet in Shanghai.

"We decided to first move into Shanghai because of its large population size of more than 24 million, as well as the city's growing affluence and sophistication of its middle class who are widely exposed to and receptive of new culinary pursuits," said a Jumbo spokesman.

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