Pre-packaged dishes from Guangdong are selling like hotcakes overseas, with annual exports reaching 31.7 billion yuan.

“Unexpectedly, foreigners love pre - made dishes so much.”

Production | Cross - border Dark Horse   Author | Song Tao 

01 Pre - made Dishes Are Highly Popular in Overseas Markets

Pre - made dishes, which are not well - received in China, have been served on foreigners' dining tables after going abroad and have won wide acclaim.

In recent years, Guangdong's pre - made dishes have been booming in overseas markets and have become the favorites of many consumers. Pre - made dish products with strong Guangdong characteristics, such as Shunde fish skin dumplings, potluck dishes, and Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, are selling well in the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and other places, and are highly favored by local consumers. Data shows that in 2024, the total export volume of Guangdong's pre - made dishes through all ports reached 31.7 billion yuan, and the products have spread across all six continents in the world. This achievement is remarkable.  

Going Global Strongly  Source: China National Radio Network

There are multiple reasons for the popularity of Guangdong's pre - made dishes in overseas markets. One very important point is that with the accelerating pace of life, convenience has become an important consideration for modern consumers when choosing food.

Pre - made dishes are easy to operate. Just heat them up or do some simple cooking according to the instructions, and in a few minutes to more than ten minutes, you can easily enjoy a delicious meal. For busy office workers, students, and those who are not good at cooking, pre - made dishes are undoubtedly the ideal choice. Overseas, many international students, as well as overseas Chinese, find it difficult to take the time to cook a Chinese meal carefully due to their busy study and work. The emergence of pre - made dishes allows them to quickly taste the flavor of home.

“One must be strong oneself to do a good job.” A large part of the reason why Guangdong's pre - made dishes are so popular is that they can fully present the freshness, delicacy, and rich flavors of traditional Cantonese cuisine to overseas consumers. Coupled with the increasingly mature production technology, many enterprises have applied cutting - edge technologies such as vacuum freeze - drying and modified atmosphere packaging to ensure that pre - made dishes can still maintain good quality during long - distance transportation and long - term storage, and you can still taste the delicious flavor from pre - made dishes.

Using Technology to Ensure the Freshness of Food  Source: Foshan News Video Account

In fact, in the field of pre - made dishes going abroad, there have long been a group of sensitive players who were the first to smell the business opportunity and have carved out their own niches in overseas markets, such as Anjoy, CP Group, and Sanquan. Take Anjoy as an example. On July 4, 2025, Anjoy Foods Group Co., Ltd. was officially listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. To be able to list frozen food companies on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange shows their strong strength.  

Anjoy's Listing  Source: Anjoy's Official Website

02 Infinite Opportunities in Cross - border E - commerce

The successful cases of Guangdong's pre - made dishes going abroad provide an important inspiration for cross - border e - commerce sellers: In the cross - border e - commerce market full of infinite possibilities, opportunities are often hidden in those seemingly insignificant corners. Many products that perform mediocrely and have low popularity in the domestic market can become hot - selling products in overseas markets once they go abroad.

In the field of smart home appliances, the smart bean sprout machine has staged a wonderful drama of “being more popular abroad than at home”. In the domestic market, due to the fast - paced life of consumers and the sufficient supply of fresh bean sprouts in the market, the sales volume of smart bean sprout machines has been lukewarm. However, in overseas markets, the bean sprout machine has become a veritable internet - famous product. Searching for relevant products on Amazon, you can see that many product links show “Limited Stock”. It is worth mentioning that an automatic bean sprout machine invented by a veteran from Weifang, Shandong has not only been exported to countries such as the United States and Singapore but has also been taken on board the Liaoning aircraft carrier. In 2017, the company's annual output value reached tens of millions.

The Bean Sprout Machine Is Sold Far and Wide in Overseas Markets  Source: Kehua Group's Official Website

It is not easy to create cross - border hot - selling products, but there are also many products that have achieved good sales after going abroad. There is a category that most people can hardly imagine could become a hot - selling product in overseas markets, especially since it is quite taboo in China, and that is funeral supplies. Moreover, the domestic funeral supplies market is relatively traditional. Consumers prefer to buy in offline physical stores, and their requirements for the styles and functions of funeral supplies are relatively simple, so the online sales are not very popular.

However, in overseas markets, especially in European and American countries, the online market for funeral supplies is very broad. Searching for “ancestor money” (what foreigners call hell money) on cross - border e - commerce platforms, you can see that the selling price of hell money is much higher than that in the domestic market. A stack of hell money that only costs a few yuan in China can sell for as high as 7 to 20 US dollars on Amazon. Even at such a high price, it still can't stop foreigners' enthusiasm for buying.

The Doubled - priced Hell Money  Source: Amazon

It is worth mentioning that hell money is not only popular on e - commerce platforms but also has a very high topic popularity on the social media platform TikTok. Many foreign netizens have shared videos of themselves burning hell money. Some people said that burning Chinese hell money brought them good luck. Some netizens even specially set up “money - burning teaching classes” to explain how to fold hell money and how to arrange items on the sacrificial table, just to increase the probability of their wishes coming true. Such a scene is rarely seen in the domestic market.

These cases fully illustrate that the cross - border e - commerce market is full of opportunities. As long as sellers are good at discovery and exploration, they can find products that have low popularity in China but great potential abroad. Cross - border e - commerce sellers should deeply understand the cultures, consumption habits, and market demands of different countries and regions, make targeted improvements and innovations to products, and open up their own niches in overseas markets through precise marketing and high - quality services.

This article is from the WeChat official account “Cross - border Dark Horse”. Author: Song Tao. Published with permission.