“Symbiosis, Co‑creation, Win‑Win” — The 115th China Food & Drinks Fair Food & Beverage Industry Development Conference Concludes Successfully

Autumn ushers in the grand event. On the afternoon of October 15, 2026, the 115th China Food & Drinks Fair Food & Beverage Industry Development Conference officially kicked off. Hosted by the Organizing Committee of China Food & Drinks Fair, with COFCO Sugar and China Mobile Migu as brand partners, the conference revolved around the core theme of "Symbiosis, Cocreation, WinWin". It gathered industry leaders, experts, scholars, platform representatives and brand practitioners to dissect opportunities for industrial transformation from multiple perspectives and jointly explore the underlying logic of innovative growth within the food and beverage sector.

Chapter Ⅰ· Symbiosis — Ecological Synergy and Precision Nutrition Empowered by Technology

Today’s food and beverage industry is experiencing profound technologydriven changes: digitalization reconstructs production and supply chains, nutritional science reshapes product value, and consumer trends guide industrial directions. “Symbiosis” refers both to the symbiosis between technology and industry, and the symbiosis between all ecological participants and consumer demands.

Xu Sitao, Independent Economist and Senior Advisor for Centennial Asia, analyzed three core global economic issues from a macroglobal perspective. The productivity revolution brought by AI and pressure from “forced capital expenditure” will intensify industry differentiation. If export growth slows next year, the need to stimulate domestic demand will rise. Geopolitical challenges are mounting, and resilience has replaced efficiency as a higherpriority consideration. For the food and beverage industry, he pointed out that snacks have become “the fourth meal”, featuring countercyclical rigid spending and serving as a safe haven amid capital market volatility. Global healthfocused regulatory requirements are tightening. Food ingredient labeling and supermarket display rules are growing stricter across Europe, America, Colombia, India and other developing economies, and China will also be affected. He emphasized that Chinese consumers differ from Western consumers, giving private brands greater room for development in China. For enterprises pursuing overseas expansion, ASEAN serves as the first priority destination. Nevertheless, huge internal disparities exist across ASEAN markets. Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia show sound performance. Enterprises must conduct thorough local market research instead of simply copying Chinaoriented business models.

Chen Jianwei, Deputy General Manager of Langjiu Co., Ltd. and Chairman of Qinghualang Company, shared Langjiu’s journey of value upgrading across product, brand and taste dimensions. Upholding longterm thinking, professionalism and consumercentered philosophy, relying on the brewing technique of “growingproducingstoringhiding” and the quality principle of “selling one out of ten stored bottles”, and leveraging the member system of Langjiu Manor, Langjiu has realized coordinated upgrading of product quality, brand influence and consumption taste, offering a practical reference for the transformation of traditional liquor enterprises.

Yu Hangyu, Associate Researcher of Standard Division 1 at the National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, interpreted revisions to General Rules for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods. He stressed that label upgrading represents a critical compliance challenge for the food and beverage industry. He reminded enterprises that label compliance requires alignment with both standards and regulatory provisions. Key practical points include food naming, compound ingredients, classification marking, content claims and electronic labels. Enterprises must adhere to the bottom line of authenticity and accuracy and avoid misleading consumers.

Chapter Ⅱ· Cocreation — New Opportunities, New Narratives and New Expressions

This session focuses on emerging consumption opportunities, brand narratives and communication approaches. From precise insights derived from platform big data and AIdriven marketing transformation, to how brands convert sports IP into consumption momentum, supply has shifted from merely satisfying existing demands toward creating new demands.

Zuo Chenming, Deputy Director of Alibaba Taotian Group Research Center and Director of its Rural Revitalization Research Center, presented observations on “New Origin Zones on Taobao”, covering new emergence, consumption upgrading, product substitution, consumermindset reshaping and circulation innovation. He noted that genuine neworigin zones stem from multifactor resonance within a single county. Based on platform data, he summarized six major consumption trends in food and beverage: lowGI healthy staple foods, dietarysupplementstyle health preservation, nutrition for elderly consumers, minimallyprocessed authentic food, endorphinboosting therapeutic diets, and localflavor products from small cities. He put forward four suggestions for food and beverage enterprises: seize opportunities brought by Generation Z and shrinking household sizes, make good use of platform data and AI tools, attach importance to livestream ecommerce tracks, and promote AI implementation to cut costs, raise efficiency and engage consumers.

Bian Qi, Director of Consumer & Market Research Center at COFCO Nutrition & Health Research Institute, released AIDriven Brand Marketing Growth Logic — 2026 China Media Trend White Paper. He indicated that the media ecosystem is shifting from traffic distribution to intelligent recommendation, marketing logic is evolving from broadscale coverage to precisionoriented growth, and brand communication is transforming from shortterm campaignoriented operations to longterm positionbuilding. He proposed a dualdriven marketing framework of “Heart” and “Intelligence”. “Heart” stands for focusing on user psychological needs and core brand values; “Intelligence” refers to leveraging AI agents, GEO, fulldomain data and intelligent operations to achieve precise efficiency gains. Bian Qi highlighted that brand narratives are shifting from “monologue” to “dialogue”. In the AI era, brands need to deliver a “humanlike feel”. Marketing should move beyond simple “grassplanting and orderdriving” to “growing trees together” with consumers, and realize closedloop conversion from exposure to repurchase via humanoriented communication.

Wang Hongru, Head of Advertising, Business Expansion Center at China Mobile Migu, delivered a speech titled Passion Integrated into Food, Strength Shines on the Arena — Migu Marketing’s Growth Solutions Empowering the Food and Beverage Industry. He shared practical cases of integrating sports IP with foodandbeverage consumption scenarios. According to him, the global sports sponsorship market was valued at over 90 billion US dollars in 2026, and food and beverage ranks among its fastestgrowing sponsorship categories. Sports represent a definite new growth track for the food and beverage sector for two core reasons. First, sports events capture longduration immersive user attention, constituting scarce highground for building brand perception. Second, sports carry highintensity emotions, enabling natural consumption conversion from “thrills on the stadium” to “taste memories”. He shared Migu’s practical practices across scenario embedding, newproduct launch, nodebased marketing and influencer endorsement. Migu will keep leveraging top event copyrights, fulldomain scenario touchpoints, AIpowered digital technologies and precise audience targeting to help foodandbeverage brands convert user emotions into sustainable longterm business growth.

Chapter Ⅲ· WinWin — Consumer Resonance of Emotional IP and NewScenario Aesthetics

Market competition has evolved from pure product rivalry to comprehensive competition covering scenarios, emotions and IP, pursuing mutual winwin outcomes for brands and consumers.

Mao Leihong, Senior Engineer and R&D Lead for Water Category at Master Kong Beverage, delivered a speech titled Redefining Alkaline Water via Electrolysis Technology — Technological Innovation Spurs New Healthy Drinking Choices. He shared technological innovations and market practices within the functionalwater track. In his view, the packagedwater industry has entered a stockcompetition era, while health demands are unlocking bluesea opportunities for functional water. Consumers are pricesensitive for ordinary bottled water, yet for functional water, they pay close attention to ingredients, composition, brand and efficacy. Once consumers recognize its value, high longterm repurchase rates follow. According to Mao, a new development cycle for functional water has arrived. Enterprises should create value through technology, build trust with empirical evidence, and pursue longterm business growth via repurchases. As the designated water partner for the 115th China Food & Drinks Fair, Master Kong pH9.0 Electrolyzed Alkaline Water, supported by its healthoriented attributes, drives growth via dual advantages of product strength and scenario adaptability and brings tangible incremental business opportunities for liquor dealers.

The roundtable dialogue themed Anchor Longterm Brand Value and Activate New Consumption Scenarios was hosted by Zhou Jingyi, Editor of Harvard Business Review China. Panel guests included Qu Tong, Vice President of Kuafu Fried Skewers; Hao Wenjuan, GreaterChina Brand Director of COMMUNE; and Xu Chao, General Manager of Beijing Yongning Chenji Bean Products Factory. The crossindustry discussion covered snack food, composite barrestaurant and intangibleculturalheritage beanproduct sectors. Guests explored how to understand young consumers, how traditional categories achieve value reshaping, and how to balance scale expansion and quality operation.

Qu Tong emphasized that brands connect with young consumers through “discovery” rather than “invention”. Many viral marketing cases of Kuafu Fried Skewers originate from consumergenerated ideas, which the brand amplifies and feeds back to consumers. Xu Chao noted that young consumers are both rational and emotional. Brands can engage them via transparent healthrelated information and emotional value. All participants reached a consensus: product strength forms the foundation, while emotional value, scenario experience and cultural assets constitute core competitiveness for brands to survive market cycles.

From trend analysis and brand practices, technology empowerment and compliance building, to consumer insight and scenario innovation, the 115th China Food & Drinks Fair Food & Beverage Industry Development Conference delivered comprehensive idea exchanges and fullchain industrial empowerment for the foodandbeverage industry, offering abundant inspirations for highquality industrial development. As reflected in its theme, China’s food and beverage industry is heading for new breakthroughs through symbiosis, cocreation and winwin cooperation.