On July 3, 2019, the China Hotel Association and Xinhua News Agency jointly released the "2019 Annual Report on China's Catering Industry", which showed that the revenue of China's catering industry reached 427 million yuan in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%, continuing the growth trend. From the perspective of catering economy in various provinces, in 2018, the catering revenue in Shandong Province reached 399.5 billion yuan, surpassing the traditional "foodie" province Guangdong and becoming the top "foodie" province in China. From the perspective of regional concentration of the catering industry, the degree of attention given by local governments, the level of economic development in each province, and the potential for catering consumption, the regional concentration of the catering industry in China is relatively high. In 2018, the catering revenue in the top five provinces accounted for 40.6%, and the top ten provinces accounted for 66.1%.

The national catering industry continues to grow, with revenue exceeding 4.2 trillion yuan in 2018

Food is paramount to the people ". Since the reform and development, with the rapid development of the Chinese economy and the continuous improvement of production capacity and people's income levels, China has gone from" difficult to eat "in the 1970s and 1980s to" full to eat "in the 1990s, and then to the continuous pursuit of food characteristics, health, nutrition, convenience, culture, and leisure since the 21st century. With the development of the economy, China's catering industry has not only become a witness to the improvement of people's living standards and consumption ability, but also gradually become a pillar industry for expanding domestic demand, promoting sales, stabilizing growth, and benefiting people's livelihoods.

According to the annual report of China's catering industry released by the China Hotel Industry Association over the years, the market size of China's catering industry has continued to grow in recent years, exceeding 2 trillion yuan in 2011, 3 trillion yuan in 2015, and 4 trillion yuan in 2018, reaching 4.27 trillion yuan, accounting for 4.7% of the national economic output value. Although the growth rate has declined in recent years, reaching 9.5% in 2018, it is still much higher than the GDP growth rate.

In 2018, Shandong's catering revenue reached nearly 400 billion yuan, surpassing Guangdong to become the top "foodie" province

From the perspective of regional catering economy, in 2018, Shandong Province's catering revenue surpassed Guangdong Province, reaching 399.5 billion yuan, becoming the largest province for foodies in China, with a year-on-year growth of 10.9%. However, Guangdong, a traditional foodie province, had a catering revenue of 388.46 billion yuan in 2018, with a growth rate of 5.6%, ranking second to last in the country and only surpassing Shanghai (4.2%), reflecting the weak growth of Guangdong's catering industry. In addition, Jiangsu and Hebei provinces had catering revenues exceeding 300 billion yuan in 2018, with respective revenues of 343.05 billion yuan and 312.56 billion yuan.

It is worth noting that in 2018, the total revenue of the hot pot market reached 875.7 billion yuan, an increase of over 52% compared to 2014. As of the end of 2018, there were nearly 400000 hot pot restaurants in China, including nearly 40000 in Sichuan, accounting for 10.6% of the total number of hot pot restaurants in the country. However, as a major hotpot province, Sichuan Province's catering revenue in 2018 was 280.74 billion yuan, ranking only sixth with a year-on-year increase of 12.5%. The rest of the top ten are Henan, Zhejiang, Hunan, Hubei, and Liaoning.

China's catering consumption regions are relatively concentrated, with the top 10 provinces in 2018 accounting for a total of 66.1%

Thanks to the national policy of expanding domestic demand and consumption, as well as the high attention paid by local governments to the development of the catering industry. The regional concentration of China's catering industry is relatively high, and key provinces play a pivotal role in the national catering industry. In 2018, the total catering revenue of the top five provinces accounted for 40.6%, and the total catering revenue of the top ten provinces accounted for 66.1%, playing a pivotal role in the national catering industry.

In terms of the level of economic development and consumption potential of catering in various regions, due to the higher level of economic development in provinces and cities with higher catering consumption capacity, local governments also attach more importance to catering development and safety, which has led to the good development of branded catering in these regions. Data shows that in 2018, the number of catering brands in Guangdong Province ranked first in the country, accounting for 15.14%; Shanghai ranks second with 11.52% of the total number of brands; The third is Beijing, with a brand count of 9.38%. Combining the number of stores and brands, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Beijing regions have high brand building and influence capabilities.

The above data and analysis are all from the Forward Industry Research Institute's "Analysis Report on the Development Prospects and Investment Forecast of China's Catering Industry".