Else Nutrition (BABY.T) has struck a deal with Baozun, a Chinese e-commerce provider, to sell their their products in China as of Q3 of 2022.
Baozun’s e-commerce solutions will give the company access to retail shoppers in China, starting in Q3 2022, via a range of on-line shopping platforms like Tmall, JD.com, Kuaishou, WeChat Mini programs and others. The company anticipates operating on China’s cross-border e-commerce platforms soon.
“Selling our innovative plant-based clean pediatric nutrition products in China is a key milestone in the company’s strategic plan to become a player in the global infant nutrition market. Following our recent growth in North America, we are on track for expansion globally. We are happy to help fulfill the increasing demand in China for a dairy- and soy-free pediatric nutrition alternative, especially considering the very high rate of lactose intolerant population in China of about 22.4 per cent, the additional suspected lactose intolerant population of about 25 per cent, and the proportion of infants and toddlers under two years who claim to experience allergic symptoms is as high as 40.9 per cent (3.7 million infants/toddlers),” said Hamutal Yitzhak, CEO and co-founder of Else.
Based in Israel, Else Nutrition’s focus is on the development of clean, plant-based food and nutrition products for infants, toddlers, children and adults. It uses a plant-based, non-soy formula for a alternative to dairy-based formula, and won the 2017 best health and diet solutions award at the Global Food Innovation Summit in Milan.
China is the market leader in terms of global market share for this market, holding approximately 40%, and the Chinese market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8%, from $30 billion in 2021 to $40 billion in 2025. The overall size of the market was $77 billion in 2021.
“Another indicator of the need for plant-based alternatives is Chinese consumers’ rising awareness of health and sustainability which has led to the increasing consumption of plant-based milk, especially among Gen Z and Gen Y consumers. The average annual growth rate of the Chinese plant-based milk industry is expected to remain above 20 per cent in the next few years, and the market size is expected to reach 300 billion Yuan ($56.65-billion) by 2025,” said Yitzhak.
Else’s plant-based nutritional offering for toddlers was recently ranked at the top seller in the baby and toddler formula category on Amazon. The company also recently received the World Plant-Based Award for the best dairy alternative product at the World Plant-Based Expo in late 2021 in New York.
—Joseph Morton
