LONDON, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese brand Yili ranks among the world's top 10 best-performing food brands, jumping from 8th to 3rd spot, according to Brand Finance Food & Drink 2018 report.
The report published Tuesday said that dairy is one of the strongest performing sectors in the food industry, registering an average 13 percent brand value growth year on year versus 4 percent for the table as a whole.
Within the sector, the report added, the Chinese market is the most dynamic in the world, set to overtake the United States as the largest market for dairy products by 2022. This phenomenon is due to rising affluence and improved accessibility of products in China's lower-tier cities. As Chinese consumers increasingly prefer dairy products which are more premium, with health benefits and innovative flavours, leading brands such as Yili focus on the changing demand and product innovation.
Yili stands out as best-performing among the 10 most valuable food brands in the world, rising to 3rd place from 8th in 2017 following an eye-watering 43 percent growth to 6.2 billion U.S. dollars brand value.
The brand is dominant in the Chinese market but has a clear potential for expansion into non-dairy categories or internationally as many major Chinese brands take advantage of the Belt and Road initiative to bolster growth abroad.
Also noteworthy is the performance of Mengniu, another Chinese dairy brand that grows at a similarly fast pace, up 45 percent year on year, but from a lower base, with their brand value now at 3.4 billion U.S. dollars, said the report.
"With producers and analysts used to the lack of change among the food and drink industry leaders, performance of emerging market brands is likely to cause a stir. We are already starting to see this from brands like Yili. The value of China's largest dairy brand jumped ahead of international leaders such as Kellogg's, Kraft, and Heinz," said David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance in a statement.
Nestle and Coca-Cola have yet again dominated brand rankings in their respective industries, each keeping runners-up at a healthy distance of over 10 billion U.S. dollars, according to the report by Brand Finance, an independent brand valuation and strategy consultancy.
