IBE Hong Kong Talks Bakery Market Trends in Asia
The “bread and cake boom” is a very real trend in Asia. There are many opportunities for foreign companies on this market, to which the local industry add sits own ethnic flavor and processing techniques to develop products adaptive to Asian tastes and cultural sentiments, according to the organizers of Hong Kong International Bakery Expo (IBE), trade fair held every year in December.
By Catalina Mihu
Asia will be the market to enjoy the biggest growth in bakery and confectionery industries, with China taking the lead as the highest growth area, IBE representatives tell us: “The Asian cultural aspect will actually be a key catalyst to the industry’s growth. The incorporation of ethnic flavors and themes into bakery products and confectioneries, the many festivities celebrated with specialty bakery goods and the huge “food gifting” culture in Asia all point to enormous growth potential,’ says Cissie Chang (IBE project manager) for WorldBakers.com.
There is demand on literally every aspect of the industry chain, from raw material and ingredients, to equipment and processing technology, franchising and licensing opportunities, packaging and logistics solutions. “Now suppliers are offering customized solutions to their Asian clients who are just a little impatient for things to happen,” she says.
On the other hand, Asia is a vastly diversified bakery market, with each of the countries/regions at different stages (and rhythms) of development.
“We observe from buyers from countries such as the mainland China and Vietnam that they would prefer various turn-key solutions, customized to their bakery business. We had the “Back Shop” from Germany exhibiting who targets these buyers. Our exhibitors are from a diversified mix of countries and regions, so our current exhibitor profile reflects just that. But surely enough, now that IBE now has gained a wider audience in Asia, we are anticipating more Asian-influenced trends to surface in our future shows,” adds IBE’s representative.
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IBE Evolution
“IBE was first launched in 2012, and since then we witnessed a fast expansion of the Asian bakery market, as bakery has become an essential lifestyle element in Asia. This is reflected by the increasing numbers of exhibitors and buyers from Asia. In our case, the most significant growth is from mainland China. When we asked our mainland Chinese buyers why do they still want to come to Hong Kong, since there are many bakery exhibitions in China, the reply was that IBE and Hong Kong offer the best-in-class in terms of practical technology, techniques and skills pertaining to the Chinese culture and tastes,” says Chang.
The organizers tell us that overseas exhibitors, including those from Asia, also find IBE and Hong Kong the easiest and most convenient entry points to access the mainland China market. Many of the local Hong Kong buyers are big international trading companies who have excellent distribution networks in the mainland. They also observe that IBE now reaches even farther and wider than before, in terms of buyers: “In 2012, we had buyers from 25 countries and regions. Now they come from 41 countries and regions. Our exhibitors aiming to export are of course very happy about this.”
Highlights of the Competitions
Esthetics were an important factor in bakery arts during the Edible Artists Global Award held in December. Also among highlights from the latest edition of IBE, organizers tell us coffee remains the most popular complimentary drink to baked goods. This is why IBE continued to support the Coffee Power Championship and Pop-up Coffee Talk.
The show emphasizes three major exhibit categories, franchising and licensing, Asian heritage baked products and confectioneries, and specialty and exotic raw materials and ingredients. “The traditional elements of the industry where we have all along will still be an important part of IBE, but we believe the dynamic and unique nature of the Asian bakery industry will create unprecedented opportunities for everybody in the industry,” Chang says.
Shenzhen Cake Expo
The first Shenzhen Cake Expo will be launched in July, IBE organization tells us. The Shenzhen show will mainly cater for the mainland market, where one cake shop serves 150,000 residents in China. By comparison, in other Asian countries and regions (developed markets like Japan, for example), one cake shop serves 7,000 residents, and in Hong Kong, one serves 14,700 residents. “Many Shenzhen buyers are already visiting our Hong Kong IBE show, and we believe the Shenzhen SCE will help support the immediate demand and development of the industry in Southern China. We’re bundling the Hong Kong IBE together with our Shenzhen SCE. In this way, our exhibitors are able to tackle both the Asian regional market and the mainland China market according to their needs. We believe the two shows are perfectly complimentary to each other but designed to achieve quite different purposes,” says Chang.