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受益于出口激勵政策，不起眼的英國消化餅干已經成為世界最暢銷的餅干之一，如今甚至在中國最大電商網站阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下天貓有了一個網店。
擁有麥維他(McVitie's)品牌的英國聯合餅干公司(United Biscuits)今天將公布，過去三年出口增加了50%，并預計到2020年再增長50%。
英國財政大臣喬治攠斯本(George Osborne)表示：“看到像聯合餅干這樣的偉大英國企業做出擴大出口的承諾真是太棒了。”
麥維他旗下有多個英國著名品牌，包括佳發餅(Jaffa Cakes)、企鵝餅干(Penguin Biscuits)和Jacob's餅干等，但該品牌稱，原味消化餅干是其明星出口產品，在2.5億英鎊的海外銷售額中占三分之二。
聯合餅干去年被土耳其的Yildiz Holding收購，上周該公司在阿里巴巴開設了網店，因為網絡是連接3.86億潛在中國消費者的重要方式。
按銷量算，中國是世界第四大餅干市場，即使中國人消費的餅干數量僅為世界平均水平的一半。
阿里巴巴英國業務總經理艾梅(Amee Chande)表示，中國人的口味正變得日益國際化。“我們越來越多地看到中國消費者在尋找在中國無法找到、能夠代表一種文化或者生活方式的獨特食品。”消化餅干即“具有中國消費者所尋求的傳統和品質的一種地道英國食品”。
其他已經登陸中國的典型英國品牌還包括已被上海光明食品(Bright Food)收購的早餐品牌維他麥(Weetabix)。
與維他麥一樣，麥維他也擁有皇家認證(royal warrant)，為它平添聲望。“包裝上印有英國國旗對中國消費者來說非常重要，因為這意味著這些餅干是英國生產并進口到中國的，”聯合餅干首席執行官Jeff van der Eems說。
聯合餅干逐漸減少了對英國市場的依賴，本土市場占其總銷售額的比重已從7年前的75%降至現在的60%。該公司的出口市場包括中東、非洲、印度及中國。
英國政府本月推出了一項提振英國食品出口的刺激措施，聯合餅干是政府鼓勵擴大海外銷售的眾多企業之一。
英國在食品和飲料領域的貿易逆差為208億英鎊。（中國進出口網）
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.
