受益于出口激励政策，不起眼的英国消化饼干已经成为世界最畅销的饼干之一，如今甚至在中国最大电商网站阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下天猫有了一个网店。
拥有麦维他(McVitie's)品牌的英国联合饼干公司(United Biscuits)今天将公布，过去三年出口增加了50%，并预计到2020年再增长50%。
英国财政大臣乔治攠斯本(George Osborne)表示：“看到像联合饼干这样的伟大英国企业做出扩大出口的承诺真是太棒了。”
麦维他旗下有多个英国著名品牌，包括佳发饼(Jaffa Cakes)、企鹅饼干(Penguin Biscuits)和Jacob's饼干等，但该品牌称，原味消化饼干是其明星出口产品，在2.5亿英镑的海外销售额中占三分之二。
联合饼干去年被土耳其的Yildiz Holding收购，上周该公司在阿里巴巴开设了网店，因为网络是连接3.86亿潜在中国消费者的重要方式。
按销量算，中国是世界第四大饼干市场，即使中国人消费的饼干数量仅为世界平均水平的一半。
阿里巴巴英国业务总经理艾梅(Amee Chande)表示，中国人的口味正变得日益国际化。“我们越来越多地看到中国消费者在寻找在中国无法找到、能够代表一种文化或者生活方式的独特食品。”消化饼干即“具有中国消费者所寻求的传统和品质的一种地道英国食品”。
其他已经登陆中国的典型英国品牌还包括已被上海光明食品(Bright Food)收购的早餐品牌维他麦(Weetabix)。
与维他麦一样，麦维他也拥有皇家认证(royal warrant)，为它平添声望。“包装上印有英国国旗对中国消费者来说非常重要，因为这意味着这些饼干是英国生产并进口到中国的，”联合饼干首席执行官Jeff van der Eems说。
联合饼干逐渐减少了对英国市场的依赖，本土市场占其总销售额的比重已从7年前的75%降至现在的60%。该公司的出口市场包括中东、非洲、印度及中国。
英国政府本月推出了一项提振英国食品出口的刺激措施，联合饼干是政府鼓励扩大海外销售的众多企业之一。
英国在食品和饮料领域的贸易逆差为208亿英镑。（中国进出口网）
The humble British digestive has become one the world’s best-travelled biscuits after an export drive and a new online store on Alibaba, China’s biggest ecommerce site.
United Biscuits, which owns the McVitie’s brand, will today report a 50 per cent increase in exports over the past three years and forecast another 50 per cent jump by 2020.
George Osborne, chancellor, said it was “fantastic to see a great British company like United Biscuits making this commitment to boost exports”.
McVitie’s makes well-known British brands including Jaffa cakes, Penguin biscuits and Jacob’s savoury crackers, but said the plain digestive was its star export, accounting for two-thirds of its 250m in overseas sales.
United Biscuits, swallowed up last year by Turkey’s Yildiz Holding confectionery group, launched an ecommerce site last week with Alibaba because online was an essential way of reaching 386m potential customers in China.
China is the world’s fourth-biggest biscuit market by sales even though people eat only half the number of biscuits as the world average.
Amee Chande, Alibaba’s UK managing director, said Chinese tastes were becoming more cosmopolitan. “Increasingly, we see Chinese consumers searching for unique food items that represent a culture or lifestyle that they cannot find in China.” Digestives were: “a wonderfully British product that has the heritage and quality that the Chinese consumer is looking for”.
Other quintessentially British brands to have made their way to China include Weetabix, the breakfast group bought by Shanghai’s Bright Food.
Like Weetabix, McVitie’s has a royal warrant, giving it additional cachet. “Havin the Unio Jack on the pack is very important to Chinese consumers, as it signifies that the biscuits were imported and made in the UK,” said Jeff van der Eems, chief executive of United Biscuits.
United Biscuits has gradually reduced its reliance on the UK market from 75 per cent of total sales seven years ago, to 60 per cent today. Its export markets include the Middle East, Africa, India and China.
United Biscuits is one of a number of companies encouraged to increase overseas sales by the government, which this month launched a new drive to boost British food exports.
The UK has a trade deficit of 20.8bn in food and drink.
