金融時報:酸奶成為中國消費者新寵

酸奶成為中國消費者新寵

在牛奶需求增長乏力、供過于求導(dǎo)致價格下滑的同時，酸奶銷量的迅速增長成了中國奶制品市場最大的亮點，發(fā)酵乳制品的利潤即將超越牛奶。相比日漸“失寵”的牛奶，酸奶為何能俘獲中國消費者的心？

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

saviour ['se?vj?r] n. 救助者，救星

implosion[?m'pl???n] n. 向內(nèi)破裂

outmaneuver[?a?tm?'nu?v?] v. 以策略制勝

perception[p?'sep?n] n. 感知，觀念

China’s yoghurt sales poised to overtake milk for first time(582 words)

By Tom Hancock

The increasing popularity of high-priced yoghurt in China has become a saviour for the country’s biggest dairies, with revenues of the fermented dairy product set to overtake milk sales for the first time.

China’s dairy market, which generates $55bn in annual sales, is the world’s second biggest after the US, according to consultancy Euromonitor. But dairies have been struggling with slowing milk demand growth and reduced prices since 2013 because of oversupply — a situation that contributed to the stock-price implosion this year of Hong Kong-listed Huishan Dairy.

Enter high-profit yoghurt products, the sale of which have salvaged dairy groups’ sales and profits in recent years.

Moreover, the success of China’s three dairy giants in selling yoghurt in the country underlines how skilled Chinese groups have become at marketing, often outmanoeuvring bigger western groups. The three companies control about 70 per cent of China’s yoghurt market.

“Yoghurt is an area where foreign brands should have had the advantage,” said Mark Tanner, of China Skinny, a marketing agency that works with dairy companies in China. “But they [offshore groups] were slow to react to the market trend.”

Chinese milk sales will grow just 4 per cent in 2017 compared with last year, while yoghurt sales will rise 18 per cent to almost Rmb122bn ($17bn), surpassing plain milk sales for the first time, Euromonitor projects.

China’s three dominant dairies, state-run Bright Dairy and private competitors Mengniu and Yili, have been able to charge higher prices for yoghurt because of perceptions that it is more nutritious than milk and can be slimming. Income growth has also enabled Chinese consumers to “upgrade” to higher-end brands.

“I drink a lot of yoghurt, about a bottle each day,” said Cooky Mi, who is in her 20s and works at a tech company in Shenzhen. Yili’s yoghurts are among her favourites and her daily habit is aimed at “keeping thin and healthy”, she said.

Profit margins for yoghurt in China are about 40 per cent — double those for plain milk, according to independent dairy analyst Song Liang. As a result yoghurt has been making an “increasingly large contribution to revenue growth at the three large dairies, and an even larger contribution to profit growth,” he said.

Bright Dairy took the initiative in 2012, launching the Momchilovtsi brand made with bacteria imported from Bulgaria, but has since lost market share to rivals. “The other giants caught up and better used their national distribution networks to expand,” said Robin Yuen, an analyst at RHB Investment Bank in Hong Kong.

Yili’s net profit rose 4.5 per cent over the first half of 2017 compared to the same period last year, to Rmb3.37bn. Sales of the group’s flagship Greek-style “Ambrosial” yoghurt — developed with the Greek Academy of Agricultural Sciences — increased about 31 per cent over the period, it said.

Mengniu’s net profit over the same period rose 4.7 per cent to Rmb1.13bn, with premium yoghurt products its two biggest revenue growth contributors during the period both, it said. The company partnered with French dairy group Danone — which owns 10 per cent of Mengniu — to improve its yoghurt technology.

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1.Which kind of dairy product has became the new money-spinner for biggest dairies in China?

A. High-priced yoghurt.

B. Soy yoghurt.

C. Lowfat and nonfat yoghurt.

D. Dairy-free yoghurt.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about China’s dairy market is true?

A. Foreign brands lost their advantage in China’s dairy market.

B. China’s dairy market is set to exceed the US in 2017.

C. Western companies control about 30% of China’s yoghurt market.

D. China’s yoghurt market is dominated by three domestic dairy giants.

答案(2)

3.Which dairy giant in China is a state-owned enterprise?

A. Yili Group.

B. Mengniu Dairy.

C. Bright Dairy.

D. Sanlu Group.

答案(3)

4.We can conclude from the passage that the profit margins for milk in China are about ____ per cent.

A. 10.

B. 20.

C. 30.

D. 40.

答案(4)

* * *

(1) 答案：A.High-priced yoghurt.

解釋：在中國，日漸流行的高價酸奶成了國內(nèi)奶制品巨頭的救星。

(2) 答案：D.China’s yoghurt market is dominated by three domestic dairy giants.

解釋：中國的三家奶制品巨頭占據(jù)了中國約70%的酸奶市場。

(3) 答案：C.Bright Dairy.

解釋：中國的三家主宰市場的奶制品公司，國營的光明和私營的蒙牛、伊利給酸奶的定價更高。

(4) 答案：D.40.

解釋：在中國，酸奶的利潤率約為40%，是牛奶的兩倍。