China Baby Food Market - Strategic Insights and Forecasts (2022-2027)

The China baby food market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.05% during the forecast period to reach US$5.046 billion by 2027, from US$2.935 billion in 2020.

Baby food is essentially specialized nutrition with a well-balanced composition aimed as closely as possible at matching breast milk. The baby food industry currently offers a diverse range of products in an attempt to meet the changing demands of babies and young children in their formative years. These foods are given to babies between the age of four to six months and two years. Growing nutrition knowledge, an increase in structured retail marketing, urbanization, and a considerable increase in the number of working mothers, are all factors driving the baby food market forward in China. The market for infant food in the country is divided into four categories: type, product type, and distribution channel.

Baby food products are in demand in China due to the growing nutrition awareness, increased urbanization, and rising e-commerce sales.

The China baby food industry is being driven by the rising number of malnutrition instances and health concerns for babies' overall growth. Parents have boosted their spending as the economy has improved. They are willing to spend money on high-quality, pricey things for children's health. It has also propelled the demand for organic food as it is produced from pesticide-free fruits and vegetables, as well as meat from animals that haven't been given antibiotics or growth hormones. It's free of artificial flavors, preservatives, and colors. Due to these reasons, major players are investing in this market. For instance, in May 2021, Nestlé opened a factory in China to produce pouched baby food as part of a round of investment in the country's east. The world's largest food company has begun producing organic puree items for sale in China under its international baby-food brand Gerber at a factory in Laixi, Shandong province.

As the number of working women grows, so does the demand for packaged baby food, fueled by concerns about the nutritional value of baby food. Women made up 43.7 percent of the overall labor force in 2019, according to the World Bank Databank. The number of working women in the country will rise as a result of government legislation promoting greater gender equality in the workplace. In 2019, for example, China implemented legislation to strengthen women's employment protections.

The market for baby food will be boosted further by the country's decreasing child mortality rate and increasing urbanization rate. According to the United Nations' World Population Prospects, China's infant mortality rate is 8.996 deaths per 1000 live births in 2021, down 3.22 percent from 2020. According to the World Bank, China's urban population in 2020 was 861,289,359, up 2.18 percent from 2019. Moreover, the increase in disposable income and e-commerce in the country is also expected to raise the demand for baby food. Personal disposable income in China increased to 43834 Yuan in 2020 from 42359 Yuan in 2019, as per the National Bureau of Statistics of China. According to NBS data, China's online retail sales increased 17.4% year on year to approximately 10.38 trillion Yuan in the first ten months of 2020.

Government initiatives will further drive the growth of the country's baby food market.

From 2021 through 2025, the National Health Commission (NHC) released a new action plan for improving child health. By 2025, the death rates of newborn babies, infants, and children under the age of five will be maintained below 3.1, 5.2, and 6.6 per thousand, respectively, according to the action plan. In addition, the rate of growth retardation among children under the age of five will be kept to less than 5%. The strategy focuses on seven major areas. Newborn protection, congenital disability prevention, healthcare, and early childhood development services are among them. Furthermore, in August 2021, China's national legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC), formally supported the three-child policy, signaling a major policy shift to address the country's rising demographic crisis. Moreover, the government offers special loans to couples who want to start a family. For instance, the administration of Jilin province has granted married couples "marriage and birth consumer loans" worth up to 200,000 Yuan.

Declining marriages, high cost of living, and the unbalanced male to female ratio in the country are likely to act as restraints for market growth.

According to information from the recently released China Statistical Yearbook 2021, the number of marriage registrations in China has been declining for seven years and reached a 17-year low last year. According to data issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 5.87 million couples married in China in the first three quarters of 2021, a modest decrease from the same period last year. Marriage and childbirth are inextricably intertwined in China. Thus, a drop in marriage registration is sure to have a detrimental influence on the country's birth rate and, as a result, on the baby food market. Another critical factor is the imbalanced male-to-female population ratio. According to China's seventh National Census, men outweigh women by 34.9 million. There are 17.52 million more men in their twenties than women of marriageable age among them. Furthermore, the high cost of living, which includes soaring house prices, is a significant barrier for young people who wish to marry and start a family. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate for individuals aged 16 to 24 was 13.1 percent in February 2021, significantly higher than the national urban unemployment rate of 5.5 percent.

China Baby Food Market Scope: