The registration policy is helping to regulate the infant milk formula market towards healthy development. In the meantime, it benefits big brands who are gaining bigger market share with unqualified players being eliminated. Limitation on formula numbers has also forced brands to concentrate resources on key SKUs, which has turned out to be a winning strategy for established brands.

A declining birth rate sounds alarm bells for IMF demand. In the meantime, parents are keen on selecting IMF that best fit their babies’ physical condition and are willing to invest extra effort and money. Opportunities lie in more premium sectors like organic, goat as well as special formula. These are now shared battlefields for all players, although international brands which have a better research heritage still enjoy bigger share. There is still room for domestic challengers in the special formula segment.

For the purposes of this Report, Mintel has used the following definitions:

IMF comprises packaged dry and liquid products designed specifically for babies/infants. The market includes both baby formula (designed for babies up to one-year-old) and growing-up milks (designed for babies/infants aged 1-7).

Mintel divides consumers into three groups based on their monthly household income.