Breakfast and snacking are among the major underlying drivers. The traditional Chinese breakfasts of rice congee or dumplings are time-consuming to prepare so people are turning to filled breads or even toast to provide their morning meal. The breakfast bun then develops in to a handy snack product as people increasingly find themselves on the move and need food for fuel rather than a planned meal with friends and family.   

 

 Similarly, the size of the cakes and pastry market is driven by some strong features. The strongest is undoubtedly the importance of the moon cake to the industry. Moon cakes are pastries filled with an intensely rich filling that can include various combinations of lotus seed paste, bean paste, egg yolk and sugar. They are given as gifts around the Autumn Moon Festival and can account for around 30 per cent of a business’ annual sales volume, so their importance to the industry cannot be underestimated.   

 

 The Chinese mark many other festivals with gifts of cakes whether by offering the traditional sticky rice confections or the more elaborate cream cakes that are a fundamental corner stone of any bakery business. The baking industry in China has been heavily influenced in recent years by businesses and bakers from Taiwan. They, in turn, have been influenced by Japan, whose own industry has grown into a sophisticated and extremely valuable market where standards of quality in presentation, flavour and food safety set the benchmark for the rest of the world.   

 

 In China many of the most successful bakery businesses, ingredients suppliers and distributors have their origins in Taiwan. The influences they have brought are now being built on by other outside influences - particularly Western ingredient and equipment suppliers who are being invited to contribute to China’s bakery industry growth through the introduction and application of their own technology and product ideas.   

 

 To date, the emphasis has been on using cheap ingredients to make an affordable product for a population that does not have a large disposable income. We are now seeing a realisation that ingredient technology can be combined with processing technology to improve efficiency, product quality and manufacturing costs. As businesses develop, their production becomes larger scale and previously hand-made recipes need to be adapted to new machines and larger scale production. This is not as simple as it may seem and companies such as BakeMark are an important part of that process.