Entering offline supermarkets, or snack discount stores such as good special sales, the jelly products in the snack area have quietly changed from the cognition in memory.

In the past, represented by traditional brands such as Xizhilang and Kiss, fruity jelly in small transparent plastic boxes has been hard to see. Instead, the word "Konjac" on the packaging bag was large. Looking closely at the brand, besides the above-mentioned traditional big factories, there were also three new snack forces such as squirrel and herb flavor.

Amorphophallus konjac, pronounced "j incarnation ru Lin", is konjac. Konjac is the ancient name of Chinese konjac. After being introduced into Japan through North Korea, it has become the title of Japanese konjac products through the evolution of a series of nouns, and is widely used in the production and processing of snack products such as jelly.

Consumers who are familiar with konjac jelly can easily find that the product design elements such as easy-to-tear small bags and large bags on the cover of konjac are highly similar to Japanese Tarami, ORIHIRO and other konjac jelly products.

Chinese jelly snacks started in the 1990 s, and jelly leader Xizhilang is one of the early representative enterprises. Over the past 30 years, with the transformation and upgrading of the whole snack industry, jelly products have been iterated several times. During this period, the innovation of marketing and packaging, the change of audience, and the current popularity of konjac jelly are the result of the emerging trend of healthy fat reduction.

Behind the small konjac jelly, it is also the transformation solution that traditional snack enterprises seek in the predicament.

Why konjac?

For many post-80s and post-90s consumers, jelly can be called one of the classic delicious snacks in childhood. It is smooth and Q-shaped and has a strong fruity flavor, which can almost easily capture the hearts of men, women and children.

Jelly itself has a long history. In ancient China, there were similar desserts such as cold cakes and stone flower jelly. It was also popular among the European royal nobles in the Victorian period. However, it was made of gelatin. Gelatin is collagen extracted by boiling bones and animal tissues. Because of its time-consuming and laborious production, it only appeared in the upper class.

The modern jelly as we know it actually originated in the 19th century. In 1845, American industrialist Peter Cooper (Peter Cooper, who made the first steam-powered locomotive in the United States) obtained a patent for powdered gelatin, which greatly lowered the threshold for the use of gelatin. In 1897, a New York cough syrup manufacturer (Pearle Bixby Wait) and his wife added strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon seasonings to gelatin and sugar, and named it "Jell-O".

In the past hundred years, Jell-O patents have been changed several times, and now they belong to Kraft Heinz Foods in the United States, and have become synonymous with jelly. The classic product jelly powder is almost a necessary material for making family desserts, which is affordable and easy to use.

Just as the public's impression of traditional jelly, jelly did not rise in China until the 1990 s. Among them, Xi Zhilang, which was founded in 1993, is a typical example. At its peak, the company once occupied 70% of the domestic market. The kiss established in 1998 was slightly weaker, but it was also one of the mainstream brands.

There is no doubt that after 30 years of development, the former giants are also faced with the common problems of traditional enterprises, such as unsustainable growth and weak innovation. Take the relatives of Hong Kong-listed companies as an example. Its jelly business accounts for more than 50% of its total revenue. After 2013, the overall revenue and net profit have continued to decline. For example, this year's revenue remains below 0.8 billion yuan, far less than the peak of 2013.1.28 billion yuan.

This is the background of konjac jelly entering the house.

In 2020, Kiss introduced Japanese ORIHIRO technology and introduced konjac jelly. On the packaging of some kiss jelly products, you can also see the Japanese mark above the word konjac. ORIHIRO (Lixie) is a company founded in 1972, the main health food business, is currently one of the mainstream Japanese konjac jelly brand.

It is obvious to see that many domestic konjac jelly is influenced by Japanese snack products, Kizhilang in 2021 to launch the jelly products, the outer packaging of bright fruit elements, eye-catching konjac two words, as well as the inner packaging easy to tear small bags and other designs, are similar to ORIHIRO and so on. In 2019, the company launched its own jelly brand "Mei Jelly" with the words "Japanese positive pressure filter preservation technology" on the package.

It is true that konjac was introduced from China to other Asian regions such as Japan and Southeast Asia, but Japan has used its value to the extreme.

Domestic "konjac first share" Hubei consistent konjac has mentioned in the company's research report, konjac food comes from natural plants, the processing process is mainly physical technology, compared with traditional animal source colloid, there is no risk of virus carrying, is a high-quality food raw materials. Japan and Southeast Asian countries have a high degree of awareness and acceptance, the processing industry is mature, and the market space is stable.

According to a survey by the Japan Konjac Association, in 2020, Japan's per capita consumption of konjac food will be 621 yen (about 40 yuan), and the total consumption of konjac food will reach 76.5 billion yen. Unanimously Konjac believes that if it can reach the per capita consumption level of Japanese konjac, the Chinese market space will reach 56 billion yuan.

Some data show that in 2021, the market size of China's konjac will be 3.367 billion yuan. Obviously, there is huge room for growth.

Konjac is widely used in the Japanese food culture, konjac kanto, konjac sashimi and other foods, the most common is konjac jelly. And this is also inseparable from the innovative measures of its jelly enterprises.

Tarami, a Japanese snack brand founded in 1969, is the most representative. Tarami's official website shows that at present, it has six major product lines including OISHII konjac jelly, almond tofu and traditional fruit jelly. Among them, konjac jelly focuses on low-calorie and rich dietary fiber, 0 sugar, 0 fat and 0 calories, and focuses on female consumers.

The product itself will also be upgraded. In 2019, Tarami launched the functional konjac jelly "premium plus", which can suppress postprandial triglyceride and blood sugar increases.

In addition to the well-known characteristics of low calories and low fat content, according to the 2023 semi-annual report of Konjac Company, the main component of Konjac is glucomannan, which is a kind of high molecular weight soluble dietary fiber. Its main functions are weight loss and prevention of cardiovascular diseases, moistening intestines and defecation, prevention and treatment of constipation and cancer, and lowering blood sugar. At the same time, it has prebiotic activity, promotes the metabolism and proliferation of beneficial bacteria, and interferes with the growth and metabolism of pathogenic bacteria.

It can be said that konjac is indeed underestimated in China.

Throughout the history of domestic jelly development, we will find an obvious decline node.

The main material of traditional jelly is mostly edible gelatin. Since 2012, rumors of "toxic gelatin" have flowed out. By 2014, CCTV's "March 15" party revealed that upstream suppliers of jelly enterprises, including crayon Shin, used toxic gelatin raw materials. The industry earthquake has led to the closure of a large number of small brands, while the performance of mainstream brand crayon Shin has also plummeted. Until today, almost no such person has been found ".

In fact, at that time, crayon Xiaoxin and other enterprises were inspected by the regulatory authorities that their products met the relevant food quality standards, but it was difficult to stand up from the public opinion.

Fundamentally, traditional jellies are outdated in terms of ingredients and taste. In the past, fruit jelly ingredients rarely contain real pulp, mostly edible gelatin, sugar, and add citric acid, potassium sorbate and preservatives and other food additives made, nutritional value is extremely low, high sugar content, and the size of the form is very easy to make children when swallowing the risk of suffocation. Including the European Union, Singapore, as well as the domestic also have corresponding risk tips, not recommended for young children to eat.

In the logic of these snack enterprises, jelly is actually more inclined to a children's snack product. For example, Li Yongjun, founder of Xizhilang, positioned the target customers as children at the beginning of the brand's establishment, "hoping that children will be strong after eating it". It is easy to find that the packaging design of each jelly brand contains cartoon elements and is low in size.

Today is different from the past, the logic has changed.

Euromonitor International data show that in 2022, the size of China's snack market has reached 465.324 billion yuan. Under the huge scale, is the new and old snack enterprises competition intensified, snack categories increasingly rich and diverse, consumer groups and their tastes revolutionary changes in the background.

In the past few decades, e-commerce channels have developed rapidly. Online brands such as Good Products Shop and Three Squirrels have risen and entered the offline. Now fried snack shops such as Xue Ji Fried Goods have broken out. Snacks are very busy and a large number of snack chain stores are expanding wildly. Snacks have become a category closer to people. The number of choices has increased and brands are constantly pushing through the old and bringing forth the new.

From the perspective of the large snack category, jelly is not eye-catching, while the post-80s and post-90s have grown up and found that the jelly they used to eat when they were young has not changed much, and it is inevitable that the traditional jelly will be abandoned.

What it needs to do is to jump out of the shackles of "children's snacks" and stand in a larger category of leisure snacks.

Everbright Securities mentioned in the special report on the leisure snack industry that nowadays, leisure snacks are mainly for young women and have the characteristics of impulsive consumption, and consumers are more likely to get spiritual satisfaction in the process of consumption.

Just like Japan's Tarami's exploration of jelly innovation, including konjac jelly, almond tofu and other product lines, all feature healthy, low sugar, low calorie and so on, which caters to the consumption habits of current female consumers.

Established in 2019, the new consumer brand of healthy light food, Lin Xiaosheng, the main product is "low-fat chicken breast sauce" and other seasoning sauces. In August 2021, the new product "0 card jelly" will be launched ". The relevant person in charge of Lin Xiaosheng told the new retail business review that the company noticed on platforms such as trembles that the viewing volume and sales volume of short videos on fitness fat reduction and healthy food are growing rapidly, and female users are important consumers, so it decided to launch this low-calorie snack for fat reduction and in line with the aesthetic preferences of female users.

The iterative revolution of a small jelly ultimately points to the trend of quality, health and high-end snacks.