休闲食品——中国食品市场新亮点

Snack foods, A New Highlight in China Food Industry

在包装食品行业内目前已经产生了一种共识，认为在中国市场非正餐食用的休闲食品将成为新的发展趋势。这是经济增长和人们消费模式不断西化所导致的结果，这个现象在一线城市尤其明显。

Snack foods are classified by taste, generally including sweet and salty. To some extent, snacks mainly mean the baked foods. Compar-ing to sweets, Chinese usually prefer salty snacks. Traditional salty foods, such as watermelon seeds and peanuts are usually available in kiosks or drysalteries. Another developing channel is the convenience store, which is still in its infancy in China though.The pop corn is predicted as a new star in snack food market in future. The increase of sale in 2006 is evaluated 14%, comparing with the last year. The potato chips market is dominated by some multinationals, due to their advanced technology, mature market skill and strong financial support. The remarkable important trend is the transition of preference from hard sweets to chocolates. And the interesting packaging of chocolate products as presents is very attrac-tive to consumers as well. In general, China snack food industry has changed greatly and will go on.