The market prospect of plant-based new tea drinks is promising

With the improvement of national health awareness, plant-based as a hot spot for consumption is being paid attention to by more and more new tea brands
.
Plant milks such as oat milk and raw coconut milk, herbal health ingredients and functional fruits are becoming a new choice
for new tea drinking ingredients.
After experiencing rapid development in previous years, the scale of the new tea beverage market has exceeded 100 billion yuan
.
According to iResearch, the market size of China's ready-made tea drinks has increased from 29.
1 billion yuan in 2016 to 279.
6 billion yuan in 2021, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 57.
23%.

Recently, the New Domestic Research Institute jointly released the "2023 Plant-based New Tea Drink White Paper" research report (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper"), starting from the current macro market of plant-based new tea drinks, and elaborating on the current plant-based new tea beverage industry development characteristics, market competition and future development trends
.

Compared to animal protein, plant-based foods are cholesterol- and lactose-free and rich in dietary fiber, which is popular among consumers
.
Global Data predicts that the plant-based food market in the Asia-Pacific region will reach RMB13 billion in 2025, of which RMB8 billion in China, and the compound annual growth rate of the Chinese market is expected to reach 171%
from 2020 to 2025.
Plant-based + new tea drink is the inevitable result of
the current new tea drinking end consumers' demand for natural health.

Driven by this trend, major tea brands have successively launched innovative drinks
based on oat milk and coconut milk.
The "White Paper" divides plant-based new tea drinks into two directions
: protein-based plant-based new tea drinks and herbaceous plant-based new tea drinks.
Among them, protein plant-based new tea drinks are mainly blended coconut milk and oat milk; The new tea drink of herbaceous plants covers a wider range, including the "elder" ingredient in tea drinking, roasted fairy grass, goji berries, red dates and other medicinal and food plant resources, and a variety of functional niche flowers and fruits have entered the attention of consumers
.

The "White Paper" shows that 75.
5% of the post-85s and 70.
5% of the post-90s have understood plant-based, which is the largest number of
plant-based groups in all generations.
When actually buying new tea, the post-90s and post-85s have a strong willingness to buy and will deliberately pay attention to whether it is plant-based
.
In addition, the "white paper" also mentioned the future direction of plant-based tea drinks, such as focusing on health raw materials such as grains and herbs, integrating fresh fruit innovation, fairy grass and niche fruits becoming new recipes for plant-based tea drinks, and forming brand barriers in independent supply
chains.

The "white paper" believes that at present, plant-based new tea drinks are mainly concentrated in the high-end tea market, and the low-end tea market is still a blue ocean
.
The data shows that in the current new tea market, the penetration rate of protein-based plant-based new tea drinks is 25%, which is significantly different from milk tea up to 54
%.
One of the reasons is that high-end tea brands are mainly deployed in first- and second-tier cities, and the number of stores is far from covering different consumer groups
across the country.

It is precisely for this reason that in third- and fourth-tier cities where high-end tea drinks have not been involved, consumers' awareness of plant-based is not enough
.
A survey by the New Domestic Products Research Institute found that the actual purchase of plant-based new tea drinks in first-tier cities is the strongest
.
75% of first-tier urban groups will deliberately pay attention to whether it is plant-based when buying new tea, and the willingness to buy in sinking markets such as third, fourth and fifth tiers needs to be improved
.

However, the lack of awareness of plant-based does not mean that young consumers do not have a healthy demand for fresh raw materials and fresh fruits, but this demand is far from being released
.
According to the logic of the development of consumer goods, it is only a matter of
time before plant-based new tea drinks sink from first- and second-tier cities to third- and fourth-tier cities.
At the same time, healthy ingredients will also become the key
to the brand's success in the terminal tea market.
Among the many enterprises with similar strength, mainly in the second and third-tier cities, the number of stores has reached 7,000, covering 31 provinces in the country, Shuyiyao Xian Cao has achieved scale advantages in the sinking market, and has also made Shuyi Xian Cao a category
in the new tea market.

(Cheng Wei)

China Food News(Version 07, December 12, 2022)

(Responsible editor: Luo Chen)