Looking at the use of technology is a good way to gauge the vast differences between China and the western world. The acronyms FANGs and BATs are used to describe the world’s largest tech firms. We all know who the FANGs are – Facebook, Apple, Netflix and Google, but what we don’t know is that these companies are rivalled by the BATs – Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

WeChat is an example of this. The instant messaging app has over one billion daily users and is owned by Tencent. Yet most people, including myself up to a week ago never even heard of it. It works like WhatsApp but you can do so much more with it including ordering food, paying for taxis and transferring money.

Paying by card is outdated in China. Many outlets no longer accept cards. Paper money, while still available is very last century. Payments to people and businesses is now nearly all done online and Alibaba is at the centre of this new form of commerce. Baidu is the Google equivalent in China. These are massive companies with huge revenue streams yet most of us have never even heard of them.

Our general ignorance towards China doesn’t end there. There are over 170 cities in China with more than one million residents.

We are familiar with hearing about the increasing affluence in China

Yet, walk down any Irish street and you would struggle to find a person who could name more than one or two of these cities. With a total population of 1.4bn people, there are more consumers in China than in the European Union, United States and Russia combined.

We are familiar with hearing about the increasing affluence in China. As more people move from rural regions to urban centres and from working class to middle-class lifestyles, their consumption of meat and dairy increases.

The average consumption of cheese in China is just 30g per person per year – a little more than one slice of cheese a year. If everyone decided to eat two slices of cheese per year, the demand would double and the world would run out of cheese. Small changes in consumer habits in China lead to seismic changes on the world market

HiGreen wholesale food market in Shenzhen, China. \ Thomas Hubert

With the increase in Chinese affluence comes a Chinese swagger. Ten years ago, you couldn’t imagine China entering a trade war with the US, yet today that is exactly what it is doing and it is willing to escalate it – one of the few countries standing up to Trump.

Chinese technology is leapfrogging that from the US and the EU. Huawei is looking to build 5G broadband networks in the UK and its mobile phones are more advanced than Apple’s. Walking around Shanghai, the streets were full of electric cars and scooters while the love affair with diesel engines persists at home.

The size of the population, while daunting, is also a bit misleading when it comes to understanding the size of the market.

GDP per capita in China is about US$10,000, while it is close to US$60,000 in the US and US$74,000 in Ireland. China may have 1.4bn inhabitants, but it doesn’t have 1.4bn consumers with disposable income to spend.

Economic success

While the rising tide of economic success has lifted all boats, income inequality continues to grow in China.

Wealth and disposable income is concentrated in the cities. It is this disposable income that will be spent on Irish meat and dairy as opposed to Chinese staples like rice and fish. It is this disposable income that the rest of the world is trying to capture. But this disposable income is not in the hands of the 1.4bn populace, more so the 300m or 400m who have good jobs giving them the income and the time to spend it.

According to global market research firm Mintel, only 48% of those living in tier one, two and three cities in China have an electric oven cooker and less than 50% have cooked a western-style meal in the six months up to last August.

Of those who have cooked beef in the past six months, over 50% have used an app to look up the recipe while over 40% have got the recipe from a food blogger.

Bord Bia realises this and has strategic promotions on food purchasing sites such as JD.com and has relationships with key opinion influencers

Again, this shows the impact of technology and social media influencers on the Chinese public.

Bord Bia realises this and has strategic promotions on food purchasing sites such as JD.com and has relationships with key opinion influencers.

As the above statistics show, the pattern of food consumption in China is different to almost anywhere else. Eating out is a big thing and not just as a treat. Long working days, the cheap cost of eating out and poor cooking facilities among the working class mean that eating out is the best option for many. About 80% of the beef consumed in China is eaten in restaurants and food outlets.

No longer perceived as just a destination for cheap manufacturing, Made in China is gaining momentum as a trademark of innovation and quality

Notwithstanding its newfound swagger, it’s hard not to be impressed by China.

It is now a sophisticated economy with hundreds of millions of people with high levels of disposable income and nearly one billion others with a desire for career and life progression.

No longer perceived as just a destination for cheap manufacturing, Made in China is gaining momentum as a trademark of innovation and quality, particularly in technology.

Economic growth is fuelling the demand for more food in China.

Up to now, that demand has been met by Australia/New Zealand and North and South America. Ireland is late to the table, but the table is growing in size and there are enough places for everyone.

It’s a market where we will never compete on price or quantity, but targeting the high end of the market with a niche dairy and meat product seems like a good strategy.