143 Countries + 60% Overseas Visits Growth:
Eight Trends Reveal the Fusion and Future of the Global Bakery “Super Hub”
—— Bakery China 2026 Concludes with Great Success

SHANGHAI, May 23, 2026 — The 28th China International Bakery Exhibition (Bakery China 2026) officially concluded at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) Shanghai. Under the theme “Innovate Beyond • Premiere Fusion • Link Future”, the four-day event brought together over 2,200 renowned brands from more than 70 countries and regions across a record-breaking 330,000 square meters of exhibition space, attracting nearly 400,000 professional visits from over 144 countries and regions.

In the opening year of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, Bakery China has not only served as the world’s premier launch pad for new products and innovations in the bakery and confectionery industry, but also evolved into a true “super hub” for global industrial ecosystem collaboration through its unmatched “whole-industry + global” connectivity. Standing at a new starting point of industrial transformation, this year’s exhibition deeply interpreted eight core trends, unlocking new growth paths for the global bakery industry.

Trend 1: Global New Product “Premiere Fusion” Drives a Full-scale Innovation
Engine

As the annual flagship launch platform for the global bakery industry, Bakery China 2026 actively implemented the “premiere economy” concept, using new products as a spearhead to drive market growth. During the exhibition, thousands of annual new product debuts — covering raw materials, equipment, packaging, finished products, digital solutions and more — were unveiled for the first time nationwide and even worldwide.

On the innovation system front, the exhibition continued the supply chain-oriented “Bakery China Innovation Award”, and for the first time released innovation products and trend reports for omni-channel end users, truly providing the industry with one-stop new product trend insights from B-end to C-end. The concurrently launched “2026 ‘Yihai Kerry’ China Baking New Product Launch Week” presented a panoramic view of industry innovation achievements through product manuals, master live demonstrations, brand launches and other diversified formats.

Notably, each year the exhibition attracts numerous international consulting firms and industry think tanks for in-depth trend analysis. Onsite this year, Bakery China jointly released three forward-looking reports with Beirong Consulting, Gaoyan Technology, EqualOcean and New Species Research Institute: 2026 China Baking New Product Launch Week Innovation Product Handbook, 2026 China Supermarket Bakery Market Insight White Paper, and 2026 Bakery Market Product Innovation Blue Book. These reports provide systematic decision-making references for the entire industry, covering product innovation, industrial landscape and new product trends.

Trend 2: Domestic Supply Chain Achieves Dual Breakthrough in Brand Power
and Product Strength, Taking Center Stage

At this year’s exhibition, domestic supply chain enterprises enjoyed an unprecedented highlight moment. On the raw material side, local leading brands such as Angel Yeast, COFCO, Lam Soon, and Zhaoqing Four Gardener Flour competed alongside international giants, showcasing highly competitive product matrices. On the equipment side, domestic intelligent bakery machinery has advanced from single-unit automation to full-plant digital solutions. Enterprises including Fuyang, Haite, and Sinmag demonstrated hardcore strength comparable to global top brands through cutting-edge technologies such as AI visual quality inspection and digital twin production lines.

Meanwhile, the successfully held Landmark Ingredients in Bakery Application Forum focused on the innovative integration of geographical indication products (such as Lipu taro, Linan nuts, Pingyin rose, Xuanwei ham, etc.) with bakery craftsmanship, deeply exploring the global expression of local flavors. From farm to table, the value upgrade path of landmark ingredients has opened up a new differentiated competitive space for the domestic supply chain, further amplifying the cultural heritage and quality advantages of Chinese raw materials.

Trend 3: “Bring In” and “Go Global” in Two-way Synergy, Internationalization
Reaches New Heights

The internationalization level of this year’s exhibition reached an all-time high. International enterprises and brands accounted for over 20% of all participants. National pavilions from traditional baking powerhouses such as Germany, Italy, Japan, France and South Korea, as well as the Belt and Road Baking Zone, made a collective appearance. The number of overseas buyers increased by more than 60% compared with the previous edition, with the number of countries represented reaching a record high of 144.

The exhibition attracted professional buyers from over 144 countries and regions, facilitating cross-border business exchanges and cooperation, and building a solid platform for the optimal allocation of global resources and common progress in the bakery and confectionery industry. Onsite, dedicated international business matching sessions, supermarket buyer selection meetings, and mainstream e-commerce matchmaking events were held, achieving over 15,000 pairings and creating an efficient collaborative super hub for the global baking industry.

While “bringing in” global resources, the exhibition actively promoted Chinese bakery brands to “go global”. The newly launched Bakery Go Global Forum provided systematic overseas development solutions for enterprises, covering topics such as overseas compliance certification, halal certification, supply chain adaptation, channel building and cross-cultural communication. Even more significantly, the organizers announced the inaugural ASEAN International Bakery Exhibition (Bakery ASEAN) to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia from August 27 to 29, marking a new phase for China’s bakery industry to fully advance from “product export” to “brand globalization”.

Trend 4: Healthy Baking Transitions from “Concept” to “Necessity”,
with Food-Medicine Homology as a Highlight

Consumer demand for health is driving the bakery industry to accelerate its transformation and upgrading toward “sugar-reduced, oil-reduced”, “clean label”, and “food-medicine homology”. At this year’s exhibition, the use of natural sweeteners, whole wheat flour, and food-medicine homologous ingredients has become the mainstream direction of product innovation. Cereal pastes, wellness fillings and other products closely align with the high-fiber, high-protein consumption trend.

Among them, the food-medicine homology track stands out as a particular highlight. Traditional wellness ingredients such as mugwort, yam, and poria cocos are increasingly being incorporated into breads and pastries, offering both taste and health benefits. Concurrent forums and themed guided tours on healthy baking presented a panoramic view of cutting-edge industry achievements, declaring that healthy baking has upgraded from a “product option” to an “industry must-have”.

Several healthy baking forums were held during the exhibition, including the Bakery China Innovation Talk 2026 sub-forums: (1) 2026 Low-GI Bakery Industry Innovation and Development Forum, (2) 2026 Bakery Raw Material Application Innovation Seminar, (3) From Taste to Health – dsm-firmenich Bakery Innovation Full-chain Solutions, (4) Technology Empowering Food, Function Without Barriers – New Trends in Accessible Food Development, and (5) Decoding Healthy Future, Safeguarding Safe Food – 2026 Healthy Baking Forum. These sessions focused on low-GI, food-medicine homology, clean labels, sourdough, whole grains, and innovative raw material applications, supported by a new system of “global trends + data-driven + scientific decision-making”, gathering insights from all sides to transform vague “health concepts” into clear “industrial practices”.

Trend 5: Supermarket Bakery Rises, Empowered by
“Competition + Forum + White Paper” for a New Blue Ocean

Bakery China 2026 delivered seven core values for global practitioners: business docking, trend insight, resource integration, skill improvement, brand exposure, policy dividend and global networking. The exhibition also improved its year-round, full-territory layout, with follow-up events including Ice Cream China in Tianjin, the Autumn Bakery China Exhibition in Wuhan, and Bakery ASEAN in Jakarta, building a domestic and international two-way linked industrial ecosystem to continuously promote the high-quality development of China’s bakery industry and connect to a new future for the global industry.

As the most iconic breakthrough of this year’s exhibition, supermarket bakery made a systematic push. The first “Namchow Cup” Supermarket Bakery Competition finals were held onsite, bringing together nearly 21 major supermarket bakery departments and 17 supply chain enterprises to compete around four core trends: clean formulas, quality ingredients, multi-grain applications and sourdough craftsmanship. Concurrently, the 14th Bakery China Forum Sub-forum 4: the 3rd Bakery China Supermarket Bakery Development Forum invited industry experts and leading corporate representatives to conduct in-depth discussions on clean labels, short-shelf-life supply chains, frozen dough technology, and central kitchen-store collaboration, providing practical methodologies for the standardization and sustainable development of supermarket bakery.

Trend 6: Boutique Bakery by Owner-Operators Gains Traction,
Personalized Brands Embrace New Opportunities

As national consumer demand continues to evolve, the personalized, premium bakery owner-operator model became a hot topic at this year’s exhibition. Lam Soon, through its core brands, launched full-channel scenario-based solutions covering owner-operator bakeries and other outlets, helping small, beautiful independent brands transition from “artisan craftsmanship” to “branded operations”.

The second "Aizhen Cup" Bakery Entrepreneur Competition Launch Ceremony was held during the exhibition, encouraging participants to interpret regional cultural characteristics through their bakery creations, showcase brand personality, and provide a stage and resource empowerment for aspiring bakery entrepreneurs. The 2026 14th Bakery China Forum Sub-forum 3: the 3rd Bakery China Bakery Entrepreneur Forum was successfully held, with multiple successful bakery brand founders and industry experts sharing valuable entrepreneurial experience and market insights.

Trend 7: Full-scenario Synchronization, Online-Offline Integration Generates
New Growth

Digital empowerment ran deep throughout the exhibition. Bakery China’s official multi-channel communication matrix, including photo streaming and video streaming, repeatedly pushed exhibition-related content to the top of social media trending lists, making it a focus of industry attention. Numerous exhibiting enterprises actively built video IPs and used new media matrices to synchronize their booths with online platforms, achieving efficient integration of online seeding and offline conversion. Live streaming has transformed from an “optional add-on” to a “core engine” for brands to deeply connect with consumers, and full-scenario digital marketing is creating new incremental space for the industry.

Trend 8: Technology Leads, with Competitions and Demos
Activating Dual Engines of Talent and Smart Manufacturing

Technology-driven development is the fundamental engine for high-quality growth in the baking industry. During this year’s exhibition, the 26th National Bakery Vocational Skills Competition — covering bread, mooncake and barista categories — featured intense competition. Notably, the barista skills competition was officially included in the national bakery vocational skills competition system for the first time, marking the continuous expansion of category boundaries.

More than ten professional competitions took place, including the 7th Louis Lesaffre Cup World Bakery Competition China Selection, 2026 "Namchow Cup" Supermarket Bakery Competition, 2026 2nd Young Pastry Chef Championship, 2026 "Yili Professional Dairy Cup" 8th China Pizza Elite Challenge, and 2026 World Beverage Mixologist Competition China Trials. Technical demonstrations at exhibitor booths were equally spectacular, ranging from AI bakery production lines to chocolate tempering shows, from frozen dough thawing solutions to plant-based ingredient applications. Technology leadership remains the core engine driving industrial upgrading.

The first-ever China Chocolate Industry Exhibition and the Barry Callebaut Chocolate Industry Salon, held concurrently, gathered over 150 global cocoa and chocolate industry leaders, presenting full-chain technological breakthroughs and creative applications from cocoa bean trading to industrial chocolate production and artisan chocolate making.

On the booth front, live demos in raw material and equipment zones became focal points. Through onsite presentations by hundreds of world champions and technical experts showcasing formulas and processes, the “panoramic display” of fully automated AI bakery production lines, AI visual quality inspection systems, digital twin factories and other cutting-edge technologies painted a vivid blueprint of the “future factory”. The concurrently held “Golden Statue” 2026 Industrial Baking & Intelligent Manufacturing Forum Series and the Thematic Forum on AI Application in Baking provided practical and feasible ideas and methods for the industry’s digital and intelligent transformation.

Looking Ahead: From Local Upgrading to Global Linkage,
Embarking on a New Journey

Bakery China 2026, through its brilliant interpretation of eight major trends, demonstrated the enormous vitality and innovation potential of the Chinese market to the global bakery industry. Standing at the critical starting point of the 15th Five-Year Plan, Zhang Jiukui, President of the China Association of Bakery & Confectionery Industry, stated: “Industrial innovation has now evolved from single-point breakthroughs to systematic restructuring. Every premiere ignites a chain reaction of industrial upgrading.”

Looking to the future, Bakery China will continue to empower the high-quality development of the bakery industry — from local upgrading to global linkage — enabling business docking, trend insight, resource integration, skill improvement, brand exposure and policy dividends to converge and thrive. With the inaugural ASEAN International Bakery Exhibition (Bakery ASEAN) setting sail in Jakarta, Indonesia on August 27 this year, Bakery China’s global influence will radiate from Shanghai — a new high ground of the “premiere economy” — to the world, joining hands with baking professionals everywhere to open a new chapter of high-quality development.

Bakery China 2026 concludes with great success. Our sincere thanks go to more than 2,200 high-quality exhibitors, nearly 400,000 professional visits, and all industry colleagues, media and partners for your trust and dedication!