Organic marketing in China: Green & Safe in Shanghai

The rapidly growing middle class in the mega-cities of China is increasingly health-conscious and can also afford to buy organic food. In Shanghai, the cool thing to do is, for example, to shop at Green & Safe or to eat out there. The store with its big restaurant reminds you in its concept and offer of the US-American Whole Foods Markets, and you find organic brands from the west on the shelves. Western food is in great demand in China. Shanghai has a number of organic delivery services as well.

If, at the weekend, you would like a late breakfast or go out for lunch at Green & Safe in the Shanghai French Concession, you have to reserve a table or be prepared to wait for quite a long time. This location is the place to be. Tripadvisor recommends the restaraunt with shop and the comments praise Green & Safe lavishly: “It's an oasis where you can enjoy and relax in the midst of hectic city life.“ Mainly young people congregate here to buy vegetables, fruit, meat, drinks, sweets and bakery goods - all fresh and attractively presented is what the Tripadvisor comment tells us, and it's a view I can confirm. The fine foods counter has to be seen to be believed.

Meeting place for fans of the western lifestyle

Since Green & Safe is where people come who value the western lifestyle and western food, it's a favourite among expats and worried parents, singles and couples looking for healthy food. The store is also used as a backdrop for fashion photo shoots. You see customers drinking their Latte Macchiato or opting for a generous platter of fine food salad or an organic Burger, and they're busy sending selfies and messages via the Chinese WhatsApp, called WeChat (700 mio user), to all and sundry. In the store you can enjoy tasting sessions. Cambio organic coffee from Bolivia or Zotter chocolate from Austria are presented at  pop-up points. Outside a vegetable stand, like at a farmers´ market, and hand-written blackboards attract people into the store from the street –  with, for example, the slogan “From Farm to Table“. You could just as well be in a Whole Foods Market in San Francisco.

Shop and restaurant 

Both the shop (ca. 100 square metres) with deli department and the restaurant, that can seat about 150 (inside and outside), located in a quiet part of Dongping Lu, have a lot to offer. On the ground floor of the two-storey historic brick building there's a lot going on at the  L-shaped counter: people stand in a long line to place their order. Behind glass are appetising cold salads of all kinds, international snacks, soups, sandwiches, hamburgers, rice dishes, hand-made pizzas, pasta, grilled food, fine food, cakes and desserts. The dishes are labelled for people with food intolerances: “Contains milk, nuts“ or “Vegetarian“. If you're buying drinks the selection is no less wide: coffee specialities, teas, freshly pressed juices yogurt drinks made in-house, international wines and a long list of international beers, from Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale and Belgian Brunhaut Bio Ambrée and German Franziskaner to Kingfisher from India – you can choose from more than 30 varieties.

Generation organic

Green& Safe is, of course, not the only organic location in Shanghai. Organic Kitchen is even mentioned in the Marco Polo travel guide. There, under the heading “Generation Organic“, organic is the number one among the five big trends. Organic Kitchen began in 2008 as a delivery service – the restaurant was launched in 2011. The products come from organic producers in the vicinity of Shanghai and  also from its own certified organic farm. A catering service and the delivery service (by sherpas) complete the offer. The restaurant also occupies a central location near the new concert hall of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

Organic or all-natural

Organic Kitchen says the proportion of organics it uses is 70 %. Green & Safe doesn't give a figure but it too has its own organic farm. In the shop, the organic share is pobably relatively high on account of the many European organic brands and the fresh food that it produces itself: you see products by Mogli, Seeberger (Germany), Zotter and Verival (Austria) and BioOrganica Nuova and Alce Nero from Italy. The fresh wholemeal bakery goods also make a good organic impression. There's certainly a lower proportion of organics in the restaurant, at the fine foods counter and among the beverages. The “Hotpot“ restaurant Qimin, that belongs to the Taiwanese operators of Green & Safe, calls itself “Organic Restaurant“. The proportion of organics has definitely risen compared with ten years ago, because there are more and more certified organic farms and both demand and availability have increased.

Fully on trend: online delivery services

Following the trend and the wishes of consumers who don't want to struggle through the Shanghai traffic, a large number of companies offer organic products in their online shop with delivery service. Fields, founded in 2009 by Steve Liang, was one of the first in this segment. He was born and grew up in America. From small beginnings with three products, that he supplied to expats in Shanghai, he now has a company with 300 employees that supplies other cities on the west coast like Hangzhou and Nanjing. The Fields website “speaks“ five languages (Chinese, English, French, Korean and Japanese). Since May 2015, Fields has belonged to one of the biggest food retailers in China, the Sun Art Retail Group (majority owner).

Among the biggest organic delivery services is Tony´s Farm. Organic vegetables are produced on two large-scale certified organic farms (each with over 100 ha) in the Shanghai districts of Pudong and Chongming Island. Tony's Farm claims to have become since 2009 the biggest organic delivery service in this city of 35 million inhabitants. (Video of the farm)

Kate and Kimi is the name of another delivery service that has specialised in satisfying the needs of expats. However, only some of the offer is organic. In a current study, the market researchers at Ken Research  forecast an organic market volume of 9 million US-dollars by 2020.

A list of organic retail outlets and restaurants can be accessed at Heathandsafety in Shanghai. 

More articles on organic in China:

China: one of the top 4 organic markets worldwide  (recently)

Challenges of Organic Retailing in China (2010)

Reflections on BioFach and the Chinese organic sector (2010)

A lot more news in aour archive