BEIJING - Wu Ying is determined to have a fancy Christmas in the southern city of Shenzhen this year, including a home-baked Christmas cake with ingredients imported from the United States. @, [* E" L) l% O s o
It has been a year since Wu graduated from Purdue University, so she plans to reinforce her memory about the "cheerful and romantic" time by baking a genuine American cake. 3 Q! i: u( f1 N' p2 O8 }
Wu, 25, is not the only person eager to pursue a Western lifestyle - or rather, food - in China. - {$ N9 `- X, e* a. E# A* f+ S
Ourtasty.com, the largest shopping website for imported food in China, has seen a 30 percent increase in orders since early December.
q8 r4 `6 ?; b" {& K Grace Guo, chief operating officer with the Shanghai-based company, said Belgium chocolates and French wines are its top sellers over Christmas. : c- t0 i9 O- f; U
The company is not only eyeing the booming Christmas market, but also the huge demand for imported food in China.
7 G/ ?" E/ K& G1 L5 B1 I "Imported food is getting more and more popular in China, with or without Christmas," she said. * m/ U7 M4 y& g9 c0 Z% _8 p: U
Guo said more young Chinese are willing to try exotic foods, as some have concerns about China's food safety record. 8 O$ m/ _1 S, x& T8 R! S# P( h. Z
When the company began in December 2008, it could get only a dozen orders a day. "But the number of our daily orders has reached 1,000 and our daily turnover is about 250,000 yuan ($37,000)," Guo said. . ~! i( d+ e0 k2 T6 I
The company sells about 3,000 kinds of imported foods, with 60 percent from the US. Compared with its European counterparts, food from the US can be relatively cheap.
8 U4 U! L1 A" U. t! E! i/ Z: g Among its top sellers are nuts such as pistachio and sauces from the US, cookies and pasta from Europe and milk powder from New Zealand.
, i+ y# Q, _# k- k "We plan to bring another 7,000 kinds of foreign food to the Chinese market. There is a lot of good stuff out there," Guo said, adding that her company's goal is to have a daily turnover of 600,000 yuan next year.
7 p; b% H0 v$ {+ C Lin Wei, founder of China's first imported wholesale food website, said he saw a two-fold growth every year in imported food sales since entering the industry in February 2007. . P. `2 p4 ]( E: S$ l
"China's potential as a food-importing country is vast and it will continue to expand along with the rapid growth of China's middle class," Lin said.
$ H" ^* N+ @; I& m+ x. B g. x5 D "A 200g package of imported cookies can be priced at 40 yuan while domestic ones usually sell for less than 5 yuan. You can imagine the purchasing power I'm talking about." |