Illustration: Lu Ting/GT

Last week, Chinese food giant Bright Food (Group) Co Ltd introduced a new series of breakfast cereal products under the Weetabix brand to local customers during a three-day food industry exhibition in Shanghai. The group also announced that less than one year after its acquisition of Weetabix, the famous UK-based brand has already achieved remarkable business results despite the continuing economic downturns in Europe and the US, with net profits increasing by more than 120 percent in the first nine months of 2013.

The past several years have seen Bright Food locked in an active overseas expansion campaign. The group has already taken stakes in several foreign food and beverage companies, including New Zealand-based dairy producer Synlait Milk in 2010, the Australian food producer Manassen Foods in 2011, the French wine merchant Diva Bordeaux in mid-2012 and Weetabix Cereals in late 2012.

So far, these acquisitions appear to be paying off. Bright Food reported 14.69 billion yuan ($2.41 billion) in international sales last year, accounting for 15.38 percent of its total revenue; and this figure is expected to widen to 25 percent by 2015, according to statements made by Wang Zongnan, the group's chairman, at the 2013 China Food Industry Development Forum.

Bright Food has created a successful business model for other Chinese food companies with global aspirations. This model also represents the potential of China's food industry when it comes to developing on the world stage.

To be fair, China's food producers vary greatly in terms of international competency. Only a handful of large conglomerates - such as Bright Food and COFCO, the State-owned food processor - are currently capable of standing anywhere near the forefront of the global food industry. Most domestic food makers clearly have much to accomplish in terms of expanding their production scale, enhancing management, strengthening their technological capabilities and improving their brand images.

But after years of foreign investment, many are now questioning whether China's business sector has attached too much importance to the overseas market. Critics say that local companies of all stripes would be better off channeling their capital and efforts toward their own home market.

Such arguments are meaningless at this point. Like their peers in other industries, China's food makers are already in the thick of the global marketplace, whether they want to be or not.

Since the reform and opening-up era, tapping the Chinese market has become a top priority for many of the world's leading multinationals. Nearly all of the world's top 50 food brands have already invested in the country. Tepid economic growth in developed markets has only forced many global companies to accelerate their expansion efforts in China, where growth has remained robust despite the worsening external environment.

China's food companies cannot sit idly by as their sophisticated foreign rivals win favor with local customers. To survive in this challenging arena, Chinese enterprises need to broaden their horizons and explore development opportunities using overseas resources and networks.

First and foremost, Chinese food makers can benefit from favorable raw material prices in the international market. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, many Western food companies have scaled back their demand for production resources, a trend which has made sugar, corn and soybeans considerably cheaper overseas than in China. It was against this background that Bright Food acquired a controlling stake in New Zealand dairy producer Synlait Milk in 2010, a sale which opened up a major source of low-cost, top-grade milk for the Chinese food conglomerate.

Closer to home, the spread of urbanization and rising income levels have created a thriving demand for high-quality foods and ingredients. This is particularly apparent in affluent coastal cities like Shanghai, where improving living standards are transforming traditional eating habits. For the country as a whole, customs figures show imports of meat and dairy were up 20.8 percent and 22.7 percent respectively in 2012 over the previous year.

While Chinese food producers can certainly benefit from a greater foothold in the international market, many will undoubtedly struggle to take their brands overseas. Probably the biggest challenge for domestic companies will be overcoming the perception that Chinese food is unsafe and unreliable. A litany of food safety scandals have given the entire industry a black eye and made the need to emphasize quality more important than ever.

It's nothing new for a country to overlook quality in the early stages of industrialization. In the early 20th century, for instance, unsanitary and unsafe conditions in the US meat industry persisted for years until strict federal quality standards were introduced. China's food industry is probably at a similar place right now, although globally oriented companies will help the industry move to the next stage of development sooner rather than later.

The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Wang Jiamei based on speeches made at the 2013 China Food Industry Development Forum.

bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn