China's catering sector picks up after austerity adjustment

Growth of China's catering sector picked up in 2014 after an adjustment prompted by the country's austerity drive.

Revenue of China's catering sector totaled 2.786 trillion yuan (about 445.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, up 9.7 percent from 2013, according to the latest data released by the China Cuisine Association (CCA).

Jiang Junxian, head of the CCA, expects the growth rate of the catering sector to jump to double-digit figures and for total revenue to reach about three trillion yuan in 2015.

China's catering industry, especially high-end dining, has been seeking a transition to survive after sharp drops in profits under the government's anti-corruption and frugality campaigns.

The high-end catering and food industries have been hit hard in the past several years, and growth of the sector slowed down for three years in a row from 2011 to 2013, according to the CCA.

The year of 2014 marked the first in the last four years that the sector's revenue growth picked up.

Catering to the needs of ordinary consumers and adjusting to market changes will be the "new normal" for China's catering industry in the future, said Jiang.

The catering sector also faces other problems such as a lack of large-scale and chain restaurants, according to the CCA.