A new range of crab snacks has hit retail shelves across China, aiming to appeal to the country’s insatiable demand for seafood snacks with a traditional culinary heritage.
The “Shui Jun” brand of snacks has launched a crab-flavored rice cakes product that is a take on the popular “guoba” traditional favorite made from pan-fried rice. The range is being sold for CNY 13.90 (USD 2.18, EUR 1.85) per 120-gram sachet by online retailers including JD.com and Tmall.com.
Shui Jun - the name roughly translates as “Navy” – processes the products in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province. The range is produced by Wuxi Shui Jun Food Trade and Commerce Co., which also uses the English name Naviy (sic) on its logo. The firm was set up by a youthful crew of investors from some of China’s best-known universities, another signal of the interest by start-up investors in China’s convenience food and snack sector.
Market research firms’ data suggest the Chinese savory snacks market grew expanded by an average eight percent per year in the period 2011-2016 to reach a value of USD 10 billion (EUR 8.5 billion) in 2016. Projections from several research firms suggest the market will be worth between USD 18 billion and 20 billion (EUR 21.2 billion and 23.5 billion) by 2022, with projections largely based on the increasing urbanization of the country’s population and emergence of different convenience-themed products and retail formats.
