Shanghai summit to drive overseas expansion of Chinese cuisine

A plate of stir-fried pork with chili sells for 180 yuan in Singapore, Chinese tea drink shops in New York's Times Square have long queues, and MIXUE Ice Cream & Tea has surpassed 5,000 overseas stores... Chinese cuisine's expansion abroad is now transitioning from sporadic exploration into a new era of systematic competition. "Let the world fall in love with Chinese flavors" is no longer just a slogan. On January 14, the inaugural CFA Catering Global Summit & Annual Awards Conference was held at The Anandi Hotel and Spa Shanghai. Hailed as the "Davos Forum" for the overseas expansion of Chinese cuisine, the event, themed "Collaboration • Innovation • Win-Win — Building a New Ecosystem for Chinese Cuisine Going Global," attracted hundreds of participants, including representatives from industry associations, founders of well-known catering brands, financial experts, overseas Chinese community leaders, and executives from supply chain enterprises.

As an important part of the Hongqiao International Central Business District, Changning District is positioning itself as a core service hub for the global expansion of Chinese cuisine. At the summit, Kong Fu'an, Party Leadership Group secretary and executive deputy director of the Administrative Committee of the Shanghai Hongqiao International Central Business District,clarified that the Hongqiao CBD is making every effort to build a pilot zone for serving enterprises "going global." It will focus on creating a highland for headquarters of globalizing enterprises and promoting the construction of a highland for institutional innovation in overseas expansion, providing strong support for various industries, including the catering industry, to expand into international markets.

Zhao Yongzun, deputy director of Changning District, said that the East Hongqiao area of Changning will continuously build a first-class business environment, safeguarding enterprises expanding overseas in areas like policy alignment, resource matching, and service assurance, supporting their steady and long-term development.

Qian Zhenhua, president of the Shanghai International Cooperation Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, pointed out that the timing for Chinese cuisine's global expansion is opportune, ushering in an unprecedented period of strategic opportunity. The association will fully leverage its own platform and resource advantages to actively build bridges for government-enterprise communication and Sino-foreign cooperation, fully supporting the global ecological construction of the Chinese cuisine industry.

As a key tangible outcome of this summit, the signing ceremony for the first batch of enterprises settling into the Shanghai Hongqiao Catering Innovation Valley garnered significant attention. This carrier is located within the Hongqiao International Technology Plaza in Changning District and aims to build China's first specialized industry building themed on digital-intelligent catering and Chinese cuisine going global. It represents an innovative practice by Changning's Xinjing Town to deepen the reform of collective enterprises and enhance asset efficiency through market-based cooperation. In the future, the Hongqiao Catering Innovation Valley will leverage the locational advantages of East Hongqiao in Changning and the policy benefits of the Hongqiao CBD to construct a complete industrial ecosystem integrating catering brands, supply chains, digital-intelligent service providers, and overseas expansion platforms. This will better serve and integrate into the broader development context of Greater Hongqiao and Changning District during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

The "six highlights" of this summit attracted much attention: the annual major release of the 2025 Southeast Asia Market Analysis Report; an awards ceremony honoring outstanding globalizing enterprises and individuals with benchmark rankings; the release of the fourth batch of overseas expansion experts and members pooling wisdom; dialogues with industry leaders sharing their firsthand "breakthrough experience"; and first-hand overseas insights and alliance cooperation opportunities brought by international guests from Malaysia, the UK, Cambodia, Singapore, and other locations. On site, senior executives from pioneering domestic brands expanding overseas, such as YONNY, Super Hi International, Zhanglala, Dxiatietea, Ning.Ji, and YH.Tang, exchanged views and sparked ideas alongside leaders from international organizations like the UK Federation of Chinese Catering Industry, the China Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia, and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia.

These industrial practices are being supported by an increasingly comprehensive policy framework. Shanghai's "Version 9.0" action plan for optimizing the business environment explicitly proposes "strengthening 'going global' services," providing enterprises with an authoritative and efficient public service platform for overseas expansion. The Hongqiao International CBD has also established a professional partner cooperation alliance for "going global." Through initiatives like establishing Overseas Hongqiao Development Service Center and the Hongqiao International Talent Service Center, it integrates various services and resources to provide full-chain support for companies expanding overseas, significantly lowering the threshold and costs for their international ventures.

Transitioning from going it alone) to building ecosystems together, this summit marks the entry of Chinese cuisine's global expansion into a new stage of collaborative innovation. With the operation of the Shanghai Hongqiao Catering Innovation Valley and the refinement of Changning District's 15-minute overseas expansion service circle, more Chinese cuisine brands will rely on this thriving new ecosystem to steadily go global, allowing consumers worldwide to experience authentic Chinese flavors.