Savencia: investment in China continues as group develops cheese market
Savencia presented dairy products alongside chocolate and ingredients for pastry-making at Shanghai’s ninth China International Import Expo, held on November 5th–10th. Its exhibits included cheeses and creams adapted to Chinese demand. Vergneau, who heads Sinodis, the group’s subsidiary in China, described the national import exhibition as an important opportunity for the business to understand local demand and follow changes in the market.
The French group began operating in China in 1996. It was an early foreign entrant into local cheese manufacturing and now operates two factories in Tianjin, in northern China. Its approach has combined adapting products to local preferences with teaching consumers about cheese. Among the products developed for that purpose are cheese sticks and other snacks for children, intended to familiarise younger consumers with cheese and encourage them to eat it routinely.
Processed cheese is already familiar to Chinese consumers through foods such as pizza and fast-food hamburgers. Natural cheese, particularly traditional varieties from Europe, occupies a smaller niche. Vergneau compared an initial Chinese encounter with cheese to a European trying stinky tofu: the strong smell can seem unfamiliar, but the flavour can appeal after tasting. He said French children begin eating cheese at one or two years of age, drawing a parallel with Chinese consumers who grow up eating stinky tofu.
Vergneau also described unfamiliarity with European dairy traditions as a source of culinary experimentation. He pointed to milk tea topped with cheese and preparations combining cream with salted egg yolk as examples of Chinese uses for dairy ingredients. French consumers, he said, acquire an established framework for cheese and cream as they grow up, whereas Chinese pastry chefs can combine ingredients without those inherited conventions, producing combinations that French chefs would not have imagined.
He drew a similar comparison with French chefs experimenting with tofu. In his account, cooks encountering an unfamiliar ingredient can develop uses outside the culinary traditions associated with it. These examples formed part of his explanation of how cheese and cream are being used in China, where the company has developed products suited to local preferences.
The speed of product innovation in China has also pushed brands to accelerate development, according to Vergneau. He said the continual arrival of products required the company to provide fresh recipes and solutions. He linked Savencia’s continuing investment to its confidence in China’s longer-term prospects and described the group’s commitment to the country as lasting.
