Bread festival butters up a new trend

Among the many street markets that Buna & Pate have taken part in, Bread Wander, a carnival for bread lovers held at the Bund Finance Center on Shanghai's Fengjing Road, was the most surprising.

The bakery and cafe, which opened in Shanghai in 2021, has had a stall at the market devoted to delectable freshly baked bread and expertly brewed coffee for the last two weekends.

Bringing together some 80 popular bakeries from around the country, Bread Wander has ignited a newfound enthusiasm for artisanal breads and has attracted numerous attendees. The shopping center hosting the market reported an increase of 125 percent year-on-year in footfall during the event, compared to the weekend average for March last year.

Although it only had a small booth, Buna & Pate's average daily sales reached nearly 20,000 yuan ($2,771).

"This was our first time participating in Bread Wander, and the enthusiasm of the consumers exceeded my expectations. In addition, they are experts and like to choose niche products," says Wei Xin, chief baker at Buna & Pate. "This gives us more confidence in the market."

Apart from opening a new store last year, Wei says that the cafe's number of loyal fans have grown 5 to 10 times over the past three years. This kind of growth and rising consumer enthusiasm has long been visible in the market.

According to data from Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, Shanghai is one of the fastest-growing markets for bread, and most bakery brands choose to establish their headquarters there. Revenues generated by Shanghai bakeries are also ahead of other cities.

Winshang.com, the website dedicated to commercial property information, released data in January showing that Shanghai has around 1,300 bakeries and dessert stores, nearly 500 more than Beijing. This places the city first in the country and offers its consumers a wide variety of baked products.

In further testament to the growing allure of bread in Shanghai, Shanghai Qu Na Chi (The Best Places to Eat in Shanghai), a prominent official WeChat account that curates culinary experiences in the city, published a city bread walk route on March 18. It introduces 11 bakeries along the 1.2-kilometer-long Panyu Road in Changning district, each renowned for distinctive offerings, among them Little RoLi, Bake No Title, and Luneurs.

"Shanghai has a well-developed bakery culture in a variety of business formats. There are many types of bakeries from different countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Turkiye and Australia, as well as niche products from Mexico, Portugal, and Eastern Europe," says Lin Weijie, co-founder of Bread Wander.

"The large foreign community and deep-rooted habit of eating bread in Shanghai, coupled with its Western cuisine and commercial atmosphere, undoubtedly make baking here the most developed in the country," he adds.

Lin explains that as early as 2010, a French bread festival appeared in Shanghai, followed by small bread markets in places such as Tianjin, Chongqing and Dali in Yunnan province.

He adds that 2023 marks the starting year of the arrival of China's first large-scale bread festival held in Chengdu which sold more than 150,000 loaves of bread over the course of three days and attracted over 200,000 attendees. Called La Fete Du Pain Chengdu then, the festival is the one that inspired this year's Bread Wander.

"Shanghai's Bread Wander was our fourth stop since our official establishment in 2023, following Dali in Yunnan, Guangzhou in Guangdong, and Chengdu," says Lin, adding that his team has been in search of delicious bread since 2019, and is focused on communities and independent bakeries and developing community bakery maps.

"At the consumption level, bread is a more day-to-day presence in the lives of Shanghai residents, and is deeply integrated into their diets. Eating bread and drinking coffee is a very natural choice for people here, without the need for a specific reason," Lin says.

"In the future, we will continue to launch bread activities to drive the bread craze and industry interaction, with a focus on promoting bread culture and related lifestyles," he adds.