CCTV news: The Ministry of Commerce and nine other departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the high-quality development of the Catering Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions") on March 28, proposing 22 specific policies and measures from seven aspects to further release the potential of catering consumption and better meet the people's growing needs for a better life.

In terms of improving the quality of catering services, the "Guiding Opinions" put forward the implementation of the "four strictest" requirements for food safety, that is, the most rigorous standards, the most stringent supervision, the most severe penalties and the most serious accountability, and improve the level of food safety from raw material access, supply chain and end supervision. Support the training of catering skills, strengthen the cultivation of catering talents from the aspects of professional setting, school-enterprise cooperation, labor brand, skill competition, etc. Combined with the needs of industry development, improve the catering standard system.

In terms of innovative catering consumption scenes, it is proposed to optimize the catering structure, cultivate and identify a number of Chinese food blocks, develop community catering and elderly meal assistance services, and promote the integration and innovation of business formats. Support the development of rural leisure catering by promoting the sinking of catering enterprises, supporting the return to the countryside to start businesses, and improving supporting industries and facilities. Encourage all localities to build "famous food villages" and "famous food towns" according to local conditions.

In terms of enhancing the development momentum of the catering industry, the development of "digital + catering" to create a benign ecology for the symbiotic development of platforms and merchants. We will cultivate well-known catering brands and strengthen intellectual property protection. Support the branding and standardization development of snack enterprises, and cultivate industrial clusters and development bases for specialty snacks.

In promoting the green development of the catering industry, strengthen anti-food waste regulatory law enforcement and industry self-discipline, and promote catering enterprises and delivery platforms to reduce catering waste. We will support energy conservation and environmental protection improvements and the reduction of kitchen waste at source. Advocate a healthy and nutritious diet.

The "Guiding Opinions" also proposed to optimize the business environment of the catering industry, regulate and clean up charges related to enterprises, and improve financing channels; Maintain business order, investigate and punish unfair competition, infringement of consumer rights and other violations in the field of catering according to law.

In 2023, China's catering revenue reached 5.29 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.4%. So, why did the state issue guidelines to promote the high-quality development of the catering industry at this time? How can the catering industry achieve high-quality development? What are the current problems? Let's see what the experts say.

The catering industry accounts for more than 10% of the total retail sales of consumer goods, and is an important sector to promote consumption, improve people's livelihood and stabilize employment. In 2023, China's catering industry recovered significantly, and the national catering revenue reached 5.29 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.4% year-on-year, and an increase of 13.2% compared with 2019 before the epidemic. However, at the same time, the quality and structure of catering service supply are still difficult to meet the people's growing needs for a better life, and problems such as extensive development mode and weak safety foundation still exist.

Liu Tao, deputy director of the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of The State Council, said: "The current development of the catering industry is still facing relatively high labor costs, at the same time, there may be some problems such as short supply of labor in a short time, and the business environment of the catering industry needs to be further improved. This document has made some targeted deployment."

Experts said that in solving the problem of labor costs, the "Guiding Opinions" put forward the development of "digital + catering", encourage the use of digital technical means, including big data, artificial intelligence and other applications, and encourage conditional places to give appropriate support to the digital transformation of catering business entities and the application of automated catering equipment and facilities. To better provide consumers with better and more catering services at a relatively low cost.

Liu Tao said that the high-quality development of the catering industry is that while the scale continues to expand, more emphasis is placed on the structure of the industry to be richer and more diverse, the production efficiency of the industry continues to improve, and the quality of service continues to improve.

Experts said that behind the scale of catering enterprises must be branding and chain support. At present, the chain rate of large catering enterprises in China is about 80%, and the chain rate of small and medium-sized brand enterprises is about 50%. Branding is a very important measure for people to trust the high-quality development of catering enterprises.

The "Guiding Opinions" proposed that the implementation of regional catering brand cultivation projects, encourage local in-depth exploration of traditional cooking skills and catering culture, cultivate "famous dishes", "famous snacks", "famous chefs" and "famous shops", and create local characteristic catering brands; Support national night culture and tourism consumption clusters, tourism and leisure districts to cultivate regional specialty food brands; Strengthen the publicity and protection of time-honored catering brands and intangible cultural heritage projects; Strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in the field of catering, and investigate and punish illegal violations of intellectual property rights according to law.

Innovative catering consumption scenarios to enrich catering supply

It can be seen that the release of the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Catering Industry" is to make efforts to enrich the catering supply, innovate the catering consumption scene, and enhance the development momentum of the catering industry from the technical and industrial aspects.

The "Guiding Opinions" proposed to cultivate and identify a number of Chinese food blocks, and guide local governments to implement digital upgrading of blocks. Revitalize idle space resources in communities, support the establishment of community catering outlets such as breakfast shops and senior canteens, and encourage local governments to give appropriate support to relevant institutions that provide meals and meal assistance services for the elderly in communities.

Encourage the development of large chain catering enterprises and tap the potential of the county catering market. The implementation of entrepreneurship guarantee loans, training, venues and other support policies, to guide professionals to return to the countryside to start businesses, the development of rural leisure catering.

The "Guiding Opinions" encourage qualified industry associations and practitioners to apply for registration of specialty snack trademarks in accordance with the law. Establish and improve standards for the production of snacks, the cultivation of raw materials and accessories, and the construction of stores, strengthen the protection and inheritance of snack making skills, and cultivate industrial clusters and development bases for special snacks. Guide the upstream and downstream enterprises of the snack industry chain to strengthen cooperation, and drive the development of related industries and farmers' income.

Jing Linbo, president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Evaluation, said: "The catering industry is actually a very important way for ordinary people, especially farmers, to increase their income, and can produce high value-added products, which forms many brands. So, I believe the pairing of rural revitalization and the catering industry can be a catalyst, and one plus one will definitely be greater than two."

In addition, the "Guiding Opinions" also proposed to promptly investigate and punish violations such as compulsory consumption and compulsory "scanning code ordering" to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Urge catering business entities to protect personal information according to law and regulations, and shall not refuse to accept cash. We will strengthen anti-monopoly supervision.

Source: CCTV network