In recent years, consumers’ shopping behaviors and concepts have undergone tremendous changes. Under the general trend of domestic consumption upgrading, the popularity of organic food continues to rise.

Compared with the relatively mature organic food market abroad, China’s organic food market for infants and children is still at a relatively early stage of development and has great potential in the future. Data shows that the proportion of organic food for infants and children in China is estimated to be around 6%, and it is expected that it will increase by 4-5 times in the next 5-10 years, reaching a volume of 60 billion.

During Tmall Double 11 in 2020, Babycare, a full-category maternal and infant brand, has omni-channel sales of more than 900 million Yuan, and the food brand for infants and children, Baobaochanle has become the TOP1 brand in “baby complementary snacks” category of Tmall.

With outstanding results, infants and children food brands have begun to become a star project for capital queuing for competition. Giants in the mass consumer goods field are also active, and they have begun to lay out the infants and children food market, looking for new growth points.

Data shows that the volume of maternal and infant market continues to grow. In 2019, the maternal and infant market reached 3.2 trillion, with a year-on-year increase of 11%. According to data released by the China Research Center for Children’s Industry, 80% of the households in China account for 30%-50% of household expenditures for children, and the average annual consumption of children in the family is 17,000-25,500 Yuan. Increased awareness of people and available money have promoted the upgrade of consumption demand. Various factors have provided the development of infants and children food brands with opportunities.

Nowadays, organic has gradually become a way of life advocated by young people, and it has also influenced the innovation of maternal and infant food consumption concepts, especially the main group of maternal and infant consumption with post-90s and post-95s. On the one hand, they are more open to organic food and have a higher degree of acceptance; on the other hand, they value the safety, health and natural taste of food of baby’s early stage. More natural and safer organic food raw materials with a more natural taste can satisfy consumers’ demands for safety, health and natural taste.

Organic food for infants and children drives the market growth of food for infants and children. Taking organic infant and young children milk powder as an example, research data shows that in the first half of 2020, the growth rate of omni-channel organic milk powder market in China has increased by more than 20% year-on-year, which is nearly three times the growth rate of the overall milk powder market; the growth rate of organic complementary foods for infants and young children is close to 40%, which is also higher than the growth rate of general complementary foods.

As a scarce resource product, the earliest growth advantage of organic market mainly lies in the natural, pure and pollution-free place of origin and raw materials. However, as consumers become more and more picky about the ingredients, functions and quality of products, organic food for infants and children are gradually ushering in new development stage. Take organic milk powder as an example, organic milk powder on the market has advantages in safety, health, formula, and nutrition in recent years. At the same time, the crossover of sub-categories has also become a potential trend, such as organic+sheep, organic+A2, to meet consumers’ more diversified, personalized and professional consumption needs.

At present, many leading domestic and foreign infants and children food brands, such as Danone, Feihe, Junlebao, have started their efforts on organic food. Organic food for infants and children has become an important bargaining chip for maternal and infant companies to win the high-end market, and it is also a young trend of consumption. Taking organic milk powder and complementary foods as examples, the average retail price of organic products is 20%-30% higher than that of ordinary products, which means that sellers can obtain higher profits from organic products. At the same time, the proportion of post-90s consumers of organic food for infants and children is higher than that of general food for infants and children, and their consumption level is higher and consumption cycle is longer. The expansion of organic categories by sellers means that they can obtain a higher-quality consumer group.