In recent days, news about the booming overseas sales of Chinese canned goods has become a top trending topic. According to data from the China Canned Food Industry Association, in 2022, China exported 3.125 million tons of canned food, generating a revenue of $6.89 billion (approximately ¥47.3 billion), marking a remarkable 12% and 22% YoY growth, respectively.

The international market for canned goods consumption is highly mature.

As an essential daily consumable, European and American countries have an average per capita consumption of canned goods ranging from 21 to 33 kilograms annually. The global supply of canned food reaches nearly 50 million tons yearly, with over 2500 varieties, showcasing significant consumption potential. In 2022, global exports of canned food are estimated to be around $26 billion, with a projected value of $118 billion in 2023. How has China firmly established itself in the tumultuous international market?

"Canned goods were the first among our food products to enter the global market, aligning their quality with international standards early on and playing a crucial role in meeting market demands, expanding foreign trade, and serving agriculture," says Liu Youqian, director of the China Canned Food Industry Association. Fruit and vegetable canned goods dominate China's overseas market, with citrus, peach, mushroom, and asparagus cans holding substantial market shares globally. Additionally, tomato sauce and bamboo shoot cans are significant products in China's fruit and vegetable canned exports.

In recent decades, China's canned goods industry has targeted high-quality development, undergoing transformations and restructuring along the industry chain. On the production side, the industry chain has extended and integrated, witnessing comprehensive development in canned, frozen, and fresh preservation formats. The industry's concentration has increased, demanding improved supply chain integration and management capabilities from enterprises. Experts anticipate that as more production enterprises integrate into domestic and international supply chains, direct interaction with retail terminals, eliminating intermediaries, will become a trend.

On the consumer side, the canned goods industry exhibits an overall increasing demand trend.

In terms of categories, products like soft packaging cans are becoming a crucial trend in the industry's development, offering substantial growth potential. In terms of innovation, the focus is on health indicators such as plant-based, gluten-free, low-sugar, non-GMO, and nutritional value ratings. In response to personalized demands, small-portion cans for single servings and sugar-free or low-sugar cans targeting young females and specific populations are gaining popularity.

Industry experts believe that for China's canned food industry to maintain and expand its trade comparative advantages in the new round of international trade competition, it must adopt a multi-pronged approach. Building the Chinese canned food industry into a labor-intensive, technology-intensive, and resource-intensive composite advantage industry is crucial. Enterprises need to continually increase the output of high-quality products, innovate in terms of products, processes, and management, and drive the industry into a trajectory of transformation, upgrading, efficiency enhancement, and high-quality development.

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China's Second Largest Canned Food Exporter
Zhangzhou Tan Co., Ltd. is a professional international supplier of canned food and a leading exporter of canned food in China.
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