Southeast Asia warms to spicy Chinese food amid expanding regional trade

A packet of spicy hotpot flavoring printed in both Chinese and the Myanmar language attracted attention at the 5th Lancang-Mekong Business Forum, which was held in early July in Nanning, capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The raw materials for the condiment are imported from Southwest China's Chongqing municipality and processed in Myanmar's Yangon to suit the tastes of Myanmar people.

"Spicy Chinese food began to appear in Myanmar 10 years ago," said Sean Yann, 37, a Chinese-Myanmar manufacturer of the spicy hotpot flavoring who is fluent in Mandarin.

Yann said spicy Chinese hot pot was introduced into high-end restaurants in Myanmar after spicy mixed vegetables sold by Chinese people became popular in the local area.

In recent years, Chinese foods with spicy and mouth-numbing flavor known as "mala" have gained ground in Southeast Asia.

This trend was also confirmed by Li Jing, a young man from Wenshan Zhuang and Miao autonomous prefecture, Southwest China's Yunnan province, who went to Yangon University of Foreign Languages to study Myanmar language three years ago. He said Chinese hot pot is very popular in Yangon, with many shops in high streets selling malatang (hot spicy soup) and spicy hot pot.

"Many Myanmar people can say 'hot pot,' 'mala' and other Chinese words, which are also indispensable topics in our conversations with Myanmar friends," Li said.

As Myanmar consumers' love for the "mala" flavor continues to grow, Yann's company is working with the local supermarkets to introduce its spicy hotpot flavoring. Although the products cost 1.5 times the price of local ones, they still sell 20,000 to 30,000 packets a month. Yann said a dozen similar spicy products from other brands are also selling well in the local supermarkets.

According to data from China's e-commerce platforms Meituan and Dianping at the beginning of this year, the searches for "mala" and "hot pot" in Thailand had increased by 700 percent year on year. More and more restaurants featuring mala barbecue and hot pot have sprung up in the popular resorts of Bangkok and Phuket.

Zhuo Bingyue, who runs a Thai restaurant in Nanning, said that compared with the spicy Thai food, the "mala" flavor in Chinese food is more complex and rich, a feature that is attractive to young Thais.

Driven by policies such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the scope of cooperation between China and ASEAN countries has been expanding, with no impediments to trade and logistics. Foods with Chinese flavors such as "mala" are entering Southeast Asia in more diverse and efficient ways.

Infused with a rich aroma, the Yulin International Spice Trading Market in the city of Yulin, south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, sees an endless stream of trucks loaded with spices such as star anise and cinnamon. The annual trading volume of spices in Yulin is about 800,000 tons, and the related industry chain employs more than 100,000 people.

Yulin has grasped the opportunity of the implementation of the RCEP, and continuously expanded its trade with ASEAN countries in the field of spices, exporting more and more Chinese seasoning to Southeast Asia to satisfy the taste buds of local people.

At the 5th Lancang-Mekong Business Forum, more than 100 industry representatives from the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) countries, including China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, discussed the cooperation opportunities in the agricultural and food processing industries.

Suriyan Vichitlekarn, executive director of the Mekong Institute, said at the forum that in recent years, as infrastructure connectivity among the LMC countries has accelerated and logistics systems have improved, combined with surging food demand, changing consumption patterns and technological advances in food processing and packaging, the market and trade of the LMC countries in the food processing industry has continued to expand, bringing broad room for future cooperation.

"China is a big market with unlimited opportunities, and we look forward to further exchanges and cooperation with Chinese enterprises in the future," said Kitti Supchukun, president of Thailand's agricultural corporation Grenades Biotech Co Ltd.