Christina Chen currently serves as the Vice Chairman of ChaCha Food Co., Ltd., as well as the Executive Chairman of the China Nuts and Dried Fruit Association. She has extensive experience in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, e-commerce and equity investment. ChaCha is a food production company located in Hefei, China, founded in 1995. Its main products are traditional roasted products, including sunflower seeds, nuts and other snack foods. The company has 10 factories around the world and more than 5,000 employees. ChaCha sells its products across China and exports to nearly 50 countries and regions. Ms. Chen has been a member of the INC Board of Trustees since 2019.
How would you describe the current state of the Chinese economy? And how do you think it will evolve over the next decade?
The current economic fundamentals of China remain healthy. Manufacturing and the service industry have gradually recovered this year, and China’s manufacturing industry maintains strong global competitiveness. Looking ahead, China is focused on fostering inclusive growth, promoting innovation, advancing technology, and establishing a more sustainable and balanced economic structure. I am quite optimistic about China’s economy in the next decade. In particular, there is a lot of potential in the consumer goods sector.
How are consumer preferences changing in China with regard to nuts and dried fruits?
In recent years, with the development of the economy and the rise of the younger generation, as well as the rapid upgrading of communication media, there are two major characteristics of consumers, especially young groups. First, they’re becoming more rational. With the slowdown of income growth and the transformation of consumption concepts, people’s consumption demands are returning to the basics, which means pursuing the true value of products. It has become more difficult for brands to create brand premium. Hard discount stores are emerging in China, and membership supermarkets are also thriving.
The second point is selfgratification. Consumers spend to please themselves. People are willing to spend more time and money on products with rich flavors, interesting packaging and fun marketing games. At the same time, young consumers also pursue personalization and are willing to pay more for differentiated products to show their uniqueness.
When it comes to nuts and dried fruits, these two characteristics can be summarized as follows:
Firstly, health orientation. People are paying more attention to health and hope to improve their health status through healthy food and dietary structure. This is a manifestation of rational consumption. People have begun to realize the effect of foods’ health attributes on the human body.
Secondly, flavor orientation. Although Chinese consumers pay attention to health, they also hope not to lose the pleasure of tasting delicious food. Therefore, people tend to choose foods that are both delicious and nutritious.
What is ChaCha doing to reach younger consumers and increase their consumption of nuts and dried fruits?
The current Generation Z population in China is 230 million. They grew up during the rapid development phase with strong consumption awareness and very different consumption concepts compared to their parents. As internet natives, their rise has brought endless opportunities and challenges to the Chinese consumer market.
As a nut and snack brand with a history of over 20 years, most loyal ChaCha consumers have now entered middle age. Recognizing this, we areactively embracing younger people and have launched a brand rejuvenation strategy aimed at increasing Generation Z’s recognition of and loyalty to the ChaCha brand.
We have launched a series of brand marketing activities, such as “Weekend ChaCha,” and co-branding with brands that Gen Z likes, such as the game brands Honor of Kings and Shining Nikki. We also hold the ChaCha Sunflower Festival every year. By doing a lot of marketing campaigns, we have received positive feedback from Generation Z while enhancing brand awareness and increasing marketing interaction with young consumers.
What sorts of innovative new products has ChaCha developed to satisfy changing consumer tastes?
No matter how consumer tastes change, delicious, nutritious and fresh products are still the underlying consumer demands for food. We’ve been focusing on these aspects for product innovation and upgrading.
First, delicious. By researching popular flavors and regional characteristics of food, making the most of ingredients’ features, and combining them with nuts and sunflower seeds, we developed a series of flavored products, such as rattan pepper sunflower seeds, dried tangerine peel sunflower seeds, herbal walnuts, durian cashews, etc.
Second, nutritious. By studying consumer nutrition upgrading and detailed eating occasions for nuts, we developed products like the Mommy Daily Nuts, Low-Glycemic-Index Daily Nuts, Probiotic Daily Nuts, Nutritional and Absorbable Nut Powder, etc. These products are not only delicious, but also meet the needs of different people for nutrition and health.
Finally, fresh. Via the advantages of ChaCha’s global supply chain and our key preservation technology, we offer consumers foods in the best possible state.
What about innovation in other areas, such as factory automation and the adoption of high-tech equipment for production processes?
ChaCha is continuing to lead technological innovation and breakthroughs in the industry. We realized the importance of automation and intelligent manufacturing in the production process very early. By incorporating independent research and development and cooperating with industry-leading partners, we developed an international, advanced and fully automated production system to achieve continuous production of sunflower seeds, representing the highest smart automation level in the Chinese roasted seeds industry. For nut production, ChaCha innovated automatic nut grading and packaging technology. At the same time, ChaCha continues to lead the industry in terms of product quality and preservation technology for freshness. We have won the second prize of the National Scientific and Technological Progress Award.
Moreover, we have built a smart digital platform for our supply chain, and we constantly innovate and integrate resources to improve operational efficiency. We leverage the digital intelligence of EHS management, data intelligence, work standardization and process transparency to achieve online real-time warnings, timely corrections and improvements. We have also piloted a smart production park and are working to extend coverage to all ChaCha factories.
How does ChaCha view the issue of sustainability and what efforts are you making in this area?
We believe that sustainability is essential and must be considered in all aspects of business operations and management. I think we still have a long way to go, and sustainability itself is an ongoing task.
In the area of sustainable production, we have implemented technological advancements, introduced new equipment and processes through collaboration and development, and adopted robust process-control systems and advanced control programs. Through these efforts, we have been able to reduce labor intensity, improve working conditions, save energy and reduce emissions. In 2022, ChaCha was honored as the first national-level “green factory” in the nut industry and became one of the exemplary benchmark enterprises leading the green development of the nut industry in China.
In the area of sustainable management, we adhere to the production management philosophy of “safety, environmental protection and efficiency,” with a focus on green, healthy and safe sustainable development. ChaCha has established and improved an environmental management system, continuously enhancing environmental management systems. For instance, we have developed and implemented related regulations such as the Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety Management Manual and the ChaCha Food Environmental Protection Management System.
ChaCha adheres to the philosophy that benefits derived from society should return to society. Our cumulative donations to society have exceeded 100 million yuan. While striving for excellence in production and operations, we actively fulfill our social responsibilities and participate in various ways in charity work.
