For the first time, the main body of Sichuan catering market has exceeded 600,000, with the largest number of Sichuan food stores in China.

The reporter learned from the Provincial Market Supervision Bureau on July 14 that in the first half of 2023, there were 43,000 newly registered catering market entities in Sichuan Province. Up to now, the total number of catering market entities in the province has reached 630,000, surpassing 600,000 for the first time.

Sichuan cuisine, as one of the four major cuisines in China, has become a "national cuisine" because it is popular with consumers.

According to the data of Meituan, by the end of 2022, the top three restaurants in China were Sichuan cuisine, local Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine and Cantonese cuisine, and Sichuan cuisine ranked first with more than 320,000 restaurants.

According to the big data of Hongcan. com, as of April 2023, Sichuan cuisine, Guangdong cuisine and Hunan cuisine ranked the top three in the number of Chinese-style dinner stores in the eight major cuisines, with Sichuan cuisine ranking first among the major cuisines with 173,000 households, Guangdong cuisine ranking 146,000 and Hunan cuisine ranking 100,000. In the past year, Sichuan cuisine, Guangdong cuisine and Hunan cuisine ranked the top three in the number of newly opened stores in major cuisines, with Sichuan cuisine ranking first with 23,000 households, Guangdong cuisine with 17,000 households and Hunan cuisine with 10,000 households. Judging from the average urban coverage of major cuisine stores, Sichuan cuisine ranks first with 98.6%, with the highest urban coverage.

Not only does it continue to lead in quantity, but "exquisite catering" has also become a new label of Sichuan cuisine. At the beginning of this year, the "2023 Black Pearl Restaurant Guide" was officially released in Beijing. There are 19 restaurants in Chengdu, ranking third in the country, second only to Beijing and Shanghai, making it the fastest growing city among the Top5 cities.

According to statistics, in 2022, the per capita annual consumption of catering in Sichuan was 3,585 yuan, which was basically the same as that in Guangdong Province (3,587 yuan), and was 15.2% higher than the national average (3,112 yuan). In the same year, Sichuan’s catering revenue was 301.15 billion yuan, ranking first in the central and western regions and sixth in the country. From January to May this year, the province’s catering revenue was 136.37 billion yuan, up 12.8% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 22.9 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year. The growth rate of catering revenue in the province was 5 percentage points higher than that of social zero consumption in the same period, and the proportion of social zero consumption increased from 12.5% in the same period of last year to 13.1%.

The popularity of Sichuan-style catering is not diminished, which is inseparable from the love of mass consumers and the continuous guidance of the government and the industry on the innovative development of Sichuan cuisine. From 2021 to 2022, Sichuan continuously evaluated 22 pioneering areas of Sichuan-style catering innovation and development, and invested a total of 40 million yuan at the provincial level to support the pioneering areas to innovate in industrial integration and development, digital transformation, and creating new scenes. In 2022, the total catering revenue of 22 pioneer areas reached 102.2 billion yuan, accounting for one third of the province’s catering revenue, which became the key to the accelerated development of Sichuan cuisine. In addition, through the implementation of the "Tianfu Three" brand cultivation project of Sichuan cuisine, 116 provincial "Tianfu Famous Cuisine", 100 "Tianfu Famous Chefs" and 106 "Tianfu Famous Stores" were selected and released, and the reputation and high-quality influence of Sichuan cuisine were continuously improved. Two standards, China Sichuan Cuisine Technical Specification and Chuandian Processing Technology, have been approved by the Ministry of Commerce as domestic trade industry standards. (Reporter Chen Bihong)