(a) imbalance in the catering structure, mass catering, especially breakfast is a prominent problem

Due to the intensification of competition, rising operating costs, mass catering in some areas of the development of a very imbalanced. The industry's high-grade food and beverage momentum is strong, the popular catering market ratio is reduced, it is difficult to meet the people's daily catering needs, "residents consume popular food and beverage difficult" problem has become a city, especially in large cities, a common problem. As the closest to the people's livelihood, the most urgent consumer demand for breakfast, has been highly valued by the government, from 2001 onwards, many local governments began to start the breakfast project, but until now the results have been very little, the breakfast problem is still not effectively solved. China Cuisine Association of consumer breakfast consumption habits, catering business characteristics such as multi-party surveys and research, surveys show that in large and medium-sized cities across the country more than 25% of office workers from not eating breakfast, even if there is a habit of eating breakfast, the process of eating breakfast is by no means enjoyable, 60% of the respondents to eat breakfast time in 5 ~ 10 minutes, more than 10 minutes only accounted for 10% or so, and with the Breakfast time is at least 15 minutes, which is far from the scientific requirement. The survey also shows that 25% of the respondents spend less than 3 yuan on breakfast, 45% spend 3 to 5 yuan, and 20% spend 5 to 10 yuan. At the same time, due to time constraints in the morning, people can only eat close to the lower consumption and limited customer flow so that the breakfast business gross profit margins can reach 25% to 28%, but the net interest rate is only about 3%, so low profit, many food and beverage companies do not provide breakfast service, the supply of a clear shortage.

In addition, the arrival of the aging society makes it particularly important to solve the problem of the elderly eating. Family size miniaturization, the trend of the elderly family empty nesting is obvious, the number of elderly people living alone has increased significantly, the retirees community pension to reach the peak value, there is an urgent need for convenient, affordable mass catering to meet their daily dietary needs of three meals a day.

(B) standardization, industrialization, low degree of internationalization, the lack of competitive international brands

At present, China's catering industry is still in a small, scattered, weak state, more than 90% of the catering enterprises for the small enterprises, the largest 100 catering enterprises in 2007, the turnover of the catering market accounted for the entire 8.5%, 37,711 quota of legal persons above the corporate and industrial activity units, 1% of the total number of enterprises and industrial activity units, the number of enterprises and industrial activity units, 1% of the total number of enterprises and industrial activity units, the number of enterprises and industrial activity units. and industrial activity units, 1% (more than 350) for the chain restaurant enterprises, with more than 230 catering processing and distribution centers, processing and distribution rate of only 66%, an average of each processing and distribution centers covering less than 50 catering stores. Meanwhile, the upstream and downstream industries are underdeveloped, and hidden food safety risks still exist. China's catering industry upstream suppliers are not mature, can not strongly support the smooth development of the catering industry. Catering industry upstream of agriculture, animal husbandry, agricultural and sideline products, food processing dispersed and the overall technology is low, which is leading to the probability of China's food safety problems increase an important reason, the upstream link of a variety of raw materials and food supervision is not in place, making it difficult to attribute the responsibility for food safety, but also inhibit the catering industry's industrialization process.

China's catering industry is not highly concentrated, human, capital and technical resources have not been fully and reasonably utilized; industrial technology is not standardized, the production technology is based on the experience of masters with apprentices, the lack of standardization of technology and standardization; enterprise production and operation of dispersed, closed, did not form the scale of industrialization, compared with the internationally renowned food and beverage companies, China's large companies in terms of enterprise scale, profitability, Compared with the international famous catering companies, there is a big gap between the enterprise scale, profitability, management level and experience of large Chinese companies, and this gap is also reflected in the overseas market. According to the World Federation of Chinese Cuisine statistics, in the world's catering market, Chinese food enterprises in small scale, dirty environment, low-grade prices, poor service, poor taste, far from reflecting the true level of Chinese food, and China's profound and sophisticated catering culture is not proportional.

(C) the status of the catering industry is low, the quality of practitioners is generally not high

The traditional concept that the catering industry is to serve people's work, low social status, many people are reluctant to enter the catering industry. At the same time, the lower economic income and high labor intensity also hindered the labor supply. 2007, the catering industry, urban units of employed persons work about 60 hours a week, the average labor compensation of 15,464 yuan, in all service industries ranked at the end of the financial industry, only 35% of the compensation. Conceptual constraints, lower treatment so that employees in the catering industry only junior high school level. In addition, China's current culinary education is still at a low level, low level of schooling, small scale, poor quality, and cultivate talents with the current high-speed development of the catering industry, the demand for talent is not compatible.

(D) policy treatment is obviously unfair, the development of the environment needs to be improved

Catering industry, compared with other industries, the price of water and electricity is high. To the price of water, for example, generally higher than the price of industrial water 20% ~ 60%, Beijing catering water price per cubic meter 4.6 yuan, higher than the price of residential water 1.8 yuan, higher than the price of commercial and industrial water 0.5 yuan. Another example is the price of electricity, Wuhan catering electricity price of 0.99 yuan per kilowatt-hour, industrial electricity price of 0.49 yuan, a difference of half.

The types and rates of taxes and fees levied on catering enterprises vary greatly from place to place, and there is the phenomenon of double charging. According to the China Cuisine Association of the national catering industry survey shows that the business tax rate is different: Beijing 3%, Shanghai 5.6%, Zhengzhou 11%, some areas such as Xinjiang on the catering enterprises to add 3% of the cultural market to establish the fund. Catering industry credit card fee rate of about 2%, compared with the rate of 0.5% to 1% of the retail industry, the disparity can be seen. In addition, the environmental protection department of the catering industry charges high, there is a widespread phenomenon of two sewage charges, for each new branch of the chain of enterprises to repeat the environmental assessment, each time the cost of environmental assessment of 5,000 to 20,000 yuan, to the enterprise to bring some negative impact.

In addition, there is inequality of treatment between Chinese and foreign food companies. Some local governments in order to attract foreign-funded chain companies to move in, in the agreement even appeared "in the vicinity of the approval of the same type of food and beverage enterprises" of the hegemony of the provisions, is not conducive to the Chinese food enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises to compete on the same stage.

(E) industry regulations, standards lagging behind, the qualification certification disorder

Compared with foreign standards of the catering industry, China's catering industry industry standards, laws and regulations are relatively lagging behind. At present, China's catering industry lacks planning guidance, in the rapid development of the phenomenon of blind, disorderly and low-level development. Has not yet established national regulations applicable to the catering industry, the lack of a systematic and strict market access system and mandatory standards, the lack of market competition in the industry norms, resulting in the industry market order is chaotic. The standards for catering enterprises are uneven, incomplete, low in technical knowledge and lacking in national uniformity. So far, the catering industry's national standards are almost none, the industry standard is only "Catering Business Code", "Breakfast Business Code" and a few other, the construction of the industry standard is obviously insufficient.

In addition, some industry organizations, the news media purely economic interest-oriented, while some illegal social groups use fraudulent means, the catering enterprises and chefs in an orderly manner to issue plaques, certificates, seriously disrupting the normal market order. According to incomplete statistics, in 2008 to steal the name of the China Cuisine Association or no registration, no record, no qualification "three no" illegal associations to carry out a variety of evaluation and recognition of more than 10, the lack of supervision of trade organizations and illegal associations, so that the catering market order is chaotic, in particular, the confusion of the chef qualification certification, master teacher master certification Misconduct, and even the phenomenon of spending money to buy a license.

(F) industry statistics lagging behind, unable to accurately grasp the overall situation of the industry development

At present, the National Bureau of Statistics of the catering industry statistics are divided into four categories of formal dining services, fast food services, beverage and cold beverage services, other catering services, but in recent years the rapid development of the industry such as casual dining and hot pot, but did not clearly embodied, is not conducive to the industry's theoretical research and practical guidance. In addition, the current retail sales of the catering industry do not include the canteens of colleges and universities and organizations, so how to carry out statistical research on the catering industry of this kind of business is also a problem that should be solved in the future. Regarding the number of employees in the catering industry, there has been no accurate statistics since 1997, so that we have largely underestimated the role of the catering industry in expanding consumption and promoting employment.