Revenues of public catering enterprises of China grew 700 times in 40 years

Beijing. June 1. Silkroadnews - Revenue of the country’s catering industry grew from 5.48 billion yuan in 1978 when the country started its reform and opening-up to 3,966.4 billion yuan, China Daily reports.
The revenues from public catering amounted to 10.8% of the country’s retail sales, which in 2017 reached 36,626.2 billion yuan. In addition, the share of this sector in the consumption as a whole was 11.5%.
In 1978 there were only 120,000 catering outlets, while by the end of 2017 there were 4.65 million catering companies with 8 million outlets.
According to the association, in 1978 the catering sector employed 1.04 million people, and in 2017 the number of people working in the sector exceeded 30 million.
A restaurant hired an average 6 persons in China in 2017, while the number in the United States was 14 and that in Japan 8.
In 1978, an average Chinese spent less than 6 yuan on catering, however, per capita consumption on catering amounted to 2,852 yuan in 2017, according to the association’s calculation. It took almost 28 years, from 1978 to 2006, for the country’s catering revenue to surpass 1 trillion yuan and it took another 5 years, from 2006 to 2011, for the revenue to exceed 2 trillion yuan. However, it took only 3 years, from 2011 to 2014, for the revenue to hit 3 trillion yuan. The association predicted catering revenue in the country will exceed 4 trillion yuan this year, the publication reads.