- 46% of China’s population are now fully vaccinated.
- Sugar consumption is therefore showing signs of recovery.
- This has been especially prevalent during public holidays as tourists have flooded in.
Sugar Consumption Recovers as China Reopens
- We think China will consume 15.5m tonnes of sugar in 2021, up 500k tonnes year-on-year.
- 46% of its population is now fully vaccinated, enabling the hospitality industry to open up once again.
- With this, more are eating and drinking out and sugar consumption is recovering.
- Between January and May, the catering industry made 1.78 trillion RMB.
- This is up 1.3% from 2019, yet lower than the growth seen between 2017 and 2019 (9.9%).
Tourism Has Played a Pivotal Role Too
- China’s tourism industry is recovering as well, which bodes well for sugar consumption.
- For May Day, tourist visits were up 119.7% year-on-year, bringing in 113.23 billion RMB.
- The forthcoming Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays should bring in a further 690 billion RMB.
- To encourage consumption, many tourist hot spots have launched new sugary products, such as the ice lollies seen below.
- We think China will produce 2.3m tonnes of ice creams and ice lollies in 2021, meaning they’ll account for around 500k tonnes of China’s sugar consumption this year.
- We don’t think ice cream/lolly consumption will revert to the level seen in 2017 as consumers are becoming increasingly more health conscious.
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