"Chinese Youth Prefer Tea Over Coffee... Target Tea When Entering Beverage Market"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Chinese youth prefer tea over coffee, and to enter the Chinese beverage market, it is argued that companies should target various types of tea such as the recently popular fruit tea and milk tea.

According to the report "Development Status and Implications of China's New Tea Beverage Market" published on the 14th by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) Chengdu branch, tea accounts for 54% of the ready-to-drink beverage market in China. This is 16 percentage points higher than the second-ranked brewed coffee (38%).

China's tea beverage market expanded from 4.4 billion yuan (approximately 755.3 billion KRW) in 2017 to 97.8 billion yuan in 2019. It is predicted to grow to 102 billion yuan and 110.2 billion yuan in the last year and this year, respectively. Especially with the rapid development of delivery culture, it is expected that 27.8% of total tea beverage sales last year came from delivery.

According to the report, the main consumer groups of Chinese tea beverages recently are the 'Jiulinghou' (those born in the 1990s) and 'Balinghou' (those born in the 1980s), accounting for 80% of the total by age group. By gender, women accounted for 68.1%, more than twice the number of men. The types of tea consumed also varied by season: green tea (40%) in summer, black tea (45%) in winter, and Four Seasons Spring tea (28%) in spring and autumn.

Ko Beomseo, head of the KOTRA Chengdu branch, said, "China has a cultural characteristic of enjoying tea from ancient times, so people feel more familiar with tea than coffee, and various tea beverages modified to suit their tastes are popular. The Chinese tea beverage market is a market that can replace the saturated coffee market in Korea, so our companies should actively consider entering it."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.