PARIS, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Optimistic about the development potential of China's consumer market, French enterprises and organizations sincerely welcome the Spring Festival consumption boom.
The Spring Festival is an important family reunion time for the Chinese people, and making special purchases is also an essential part of the festival celebration. As China continues to widen its opening-up, more foreign festival goods, such as fruits, dairy products and wine, enter the Chinese market, enriching Chinese consumers' choices.
French food company Andros has introduced its fruit-based agri-food into the Chinese market, and is optimistic about its performance during this year's Spring Festival.
"The Spring Festival is a time-honored tradition in China and the most important festival for Chinese families. This year, with its inclusion into the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list, it has become even more significant and far-reaching. The Spring Festival market of 2025 is thus well worth looking forward to and should drive a further rise in the festival consumption", said Maxence Zeng, general manager of Andros China.
Haiyan Dou, sales director of Andros China, said that the company's business customers stocked up for this year's Spring Festival goods with a substantial increase in the rhythm of orders and order quantity, reflecting the market's confidence and expectations of the Spring Festival consumption tide. "We expect sales to be more than twice the sales record of previous years, setting a new record for Spring Festival sales performance," she said.
According to her, Andros China has launched special products full of festive atmosphere in retail stores, such as "Giant Lollipop" and "Sweet Candy Gift Pack", and used its branded products, such as fruit puree, jam, lollipop, and gummies, to form different mixed festival gift packs for different consumer groups. At the same time, it has increased the number of stacking displays, sampling, and buy-and-give activities in the hope of catching consumers' eyeballs on the festival market.
Hervé Lanoë, CEO of French dairy ingredients supplier FIT Group, also expected the group to benefit from the Spring Festival, as it would boost consumption of Chinese households. "With the UNESCO's recognition, the Spring Festival has become a more protected festival culture, which will also be welcomed by our companies. It is for sure that our business customers will increase their holiday-themed products and marketing campaigns to attract consumers," he said.
"We are looking forward to the Spring Festival and have anticipated plentiful stock to meet customer demand, especially for our high-end butter and cream products. Since these products are not mass or basic products, they are not produced in large quantities and must be stocked well in advance for high festival demand. Therefore, our preparation for the Chinese New Year has started since December," said him. However, he also mentioned that despite the preparations, the group's goat milk powder series products have been out of stock in the Chinese market several times before the festival.
Hervé Lanoë said that FIT Group has observed that the Chinese market has developed a high-end consumer trend that is more focused on quality and health, which has led to better sales performance of the group's high-end brands and product lines. For example, products such as its branded butter with Protected Designation of Origin are highly appreciated by Chinese customers. "Chinese consumers are well aware of the difference between premium and basic products and are increasingly focusing on 'less and better' consumption of food and other products as the emphasis on health rises." He remains optimistic about the consumption potential of the Chinese market in the future, especially for high-end products, as both the average income of Chinese residents and their concern for product quality are rising.
French wine has long been favored by consumers from all over the world. Among them, the southern French wine from wine companies in Occitania, such as Gérard Bertrand and Château Montus, have also presented on the Spring Festival family feasts.
AD'OCC, regional economic development agency in Occitania, has been helping regional wine producers to better enter the Chinese market in recent years. Catherine Machabert, Food & Wine International Director of the agency, said that the Spring Festival period is a real peak of consumption, especially the consumption of wine. "The distributors of Occitan wine are very active in promoting wine products in various sales channels in China, such as large stores like Sam's Club, duty-free shops, community stores, and various restaurants and taverns. As 2025 is the Year of the Snake in the lunar calendar, distributors have prepared various gift boxes with snake graphic designs to promote wine."
According to Catherine Machabert, before the Spring Festival, the agency organized special activities to match wine producers in the Occitania region with Chinese importers to provide support for the latter's festival supply. For example, at the end of December last year, a tasting event was held in east China's Shanghai, exhibiting wines made from more than 60 grape varieties in southern France.
"Occitania has always had close relations with China and attaches great importance to the Chinese market. It is also the only French region that has set up such a promotion agency in China. Occitan enterprises actively participate in the "From French Farm to Chinese Table" mechanism and look forward to launching more high-quality products from the region to the Chinese market in the future," she said.
(Contributed by Li Wenxin, edited by Su Dan with Xinhua Silk Road, sudan@xinhua.org)
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