The market scale, potential, and value of China’s infant milk powder (IMP) sector makes it an extremely enticing prospect for both domestic interests and foreign investors. Seismic forces have shaped the sector in the form of quality and safety scandals, which profoundly impacted market dynamics. In response, China’s government has erected substantial regulatory barriers and technical barriers to trade, which are among the most pressing issues for stakeholders. These issues are compounded by increasingly fierce market competition, declining birth rates, and higher breastfeeding rates.

Evolving consumer demand in China is pushing product development towards greater category differentiation, accelerated product innovation, product segmentation, and product premiumization. The market share of domestic infant formula surged from 30% in 2013 to over 60% in 2019, led by Chinese innovators Firmus, Junlebao, and Ausnutria.

China is set to release new IMP regulations and standards in H2 2020, which will transiently disrupt the market until industry alignment is realized. Further questions remain as to whether China will implement restrictions on the trade of IMP through cross-border e-commerce. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on global supply chains and the potential for second waves in China casts a shadow of uncertainty about prospects.

In this webinar, we will bring together leading experts to address these and many other issues and to offer predictions on how China’s IMP sector will develop in the future.

Contents

1. Does China’s infant formula market remain attractive?
2. Understanding Chinese consumers in buying infant formula products
3. How domestic firms regain consumer confidence & market share?
4. How will China’s infant formula policy move forward?

Schedule