中國酸奶銷售額將首次超過純牛奶

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.

高價酸奶在中國越來越受到歡迎，成為中國大型乳品制造商的救星。酸奶的收入將首次超過純牛奶。

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.

根據(jù)歐睿(Euromonitor)的數(shù)據(jù)，年收入高達550億美元的中國乳品市場位居全球第二，僅次于美國。但自2013年以來，由于供應過剩，中國乳品企業(yè)一直在艱難應對需求增速放緩以及價格下跌的局面，這種局面導致在香港上市的輝山乳業(yè)(Huishan Dairy)今年股價暴跌。

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

高利潤的酸奶產(chǎn)品登場了：最近幾年，這些產(chǎn)品的銷售一直在拯救乳品制造商的銷售額和利潤。

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.

另外，中國3大乳品巨頭在中國銷售酸奶的成功突顯出，中國企業(yè)的市場營銷技巧已多么純熟，經(jīng)常勝過規(guī)模較大的西方企業(yè)。這三家公司控制著中國酸奶市場約70%的份額。

“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.”

“外國品牌本應在酸奶領域具備優(yōu)勢，”與中國乳品公司合作的市場營銷公司China Skinny的馬克•唐納(Mark Tanner)表示，“但他們(外國公司)在應對市場趨勢方面行動緩慢。”

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.

歐睿預測，中國今年的乳品銷售額將僅同比增長4%，而酸奶銷售額將增長18%，達到近1220億元人民幣(合170億美元)，首次超過純牛奶。

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.

中國三大乳品制造商(國有的光明乳業(yè)(Bright Dairy)以及民營競爭對手蒙牛(Mengniu)和伊利(Yili))之所以能夠對酸奶要價更高是因為下列看法：酸奶比純牛奶更有營養(yǎng)，還能瘦身。收入增長還讓中國消費者得以“升級”到較高端品牌。

“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.

“我會喝很多酸奶，大約每天一瓶。”在深圳一家科技公司工作、20多歲的Cooky Mi表示。她表示，伊利酸奶是她最愛喝的酸奶之一，她每天喝酸奶是為了“保持苗條和健康”。

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.

獨立乳業(yè)分析師宋亮表示，在中國，酸奶的利潤率大約為40%，是純牛奶的兩倍。因此，他表示，酸奶對于“三大乳品制造商收入增長的貢獻越來越大，對利潤增長的貢獻還要更大。”

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.

2012年，光明乳業(yè)發(fā)動攻勢，推出用保加利亞進口菌種制成的莫斯利安(Momchilovtsi)酸奶品牌，但此后其市場占有率遭到競爭對手侵蝕。興業(yè)金融(RHB Investment Bank)駐香港分析師Robin Yuen表示：“其他巨頭趕了上來，并更好地利用了自己的國內(nèi)分銷網(wǎng)絡來擴張。”

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.

今年上半年，伊利凈利潤同比增長4.5%，至33.7億元人民幣。伊利表示，該集團旗艦酸奶——希臘風格的“安慕希”(Ambrosial)酸奶的銷售額同期增長約31%，該品牌是伊利與希臘農(nóng)業(yè)科學院(Greek Academy of Agricultural Sciences)合作開發(fā)的。

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.

同期，蒙牛凈利潤增長4.7%，至11.3億元人民幣，該公司表示，其高端酸奶產(chǎn)品是今年上半年該集團收入增長的前兩大貢獻者之一。蒙牛與法國乳業(yè)集團達能(Danone)合作改進其酸奶技術。達能擁有蒙牛10%股權。