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Daniel Ren

The world's largest supplier of poultry, beef and pork products is keen to expand its mainland business to cater to the changing appetites of increasingly affluent Chinese consumers and the rise in popularity of e-commerce shopping.
Tyson Foods, which entered the mainland market in 2001, recently launched 22 new frozen-food items tailor-made for local consumers.
Bill Mayer, chief executive of Tyson China, said the company was also making efforts to educate mainlanders about the importance of freshness.
"We are not simply trying to bring Western-style food here," Mayer told the South China Morning Post. "Our strategy is to create locally relevant solutions."
The growing affluence of mainlanders, which has sparked a rise in demand for high-quality foods, has prompted foreign companies to speed up their expansion plans in the world's most populated market.
Mayer said understanding the needs of local consumers was the company's priority.
Tyson said its mainland focus was on quality, ready-to-cook foods, which would delight consumers because of the freshness of their ingredients.
"As consumers begin looking to create certain products in their homes, they are going to need those items," Mayer said. "We see a lot of demand in fresh items."
He said mainlanders' growing appetite for ready-to-cook foods had inspired Tyson to introduce a series of innovated ideas aimed at boosting sales. "We aim to be the leader of the mainland's [quality ready-to-cook] category," Mayer said. "We want to help our partners build up a category that can delight consumers here."
The market for meat products on the mainland is valued at more than 1 trillion yuan (HK$1.2 trillion) and people's increased spending on healthy, safe and fresh beef, pork and poultry products has prompted many big-name foreign food processors to consolidate their footholds in China.
Tyson and other multinational companies are also looking to use the mainland's booming interest in e-commerce to boost their distribution.
Beijing is now striving to transform the economy's growth model by focusing on consumer spending that uses fast-growing information technologies.
Mayer said Tyson planned to strengthen its cooperation with local e-retailers, including Yihaodian.com to expand in China.
He said the company's biggest challenge on the mainland was ensuring the smooth distribution of its cold foods as it expanded its geographic presence.
"We are constantly looking for distribution options that will allow us to take our products to as many places as we can," he said. "But we must always have the ability to guarantee our food safety. We focus the same way on food safety, no matter where our operations are globally."


Affluent Chinese consumers appetite grows for finer meat cuts of life

Western quality-meat suppliers turn focus on e-commerce to boost sales