Stationery to sea in Africa, it seems impossible.

In most people's perception, it seems to be the norm for African children to play in groups in the village. Stationery is quite out of place with this kind of scene, but in fact, the market space for stationery in Africa is not only large, but also has been targeted by Chinese stationery companies early.

On the one hand, Africa has a population size similar to that of China, and the proportion of young people and children is larger. The fertility rate of many countries is above 5, which is unmatched by most countries in the world.

On the other hand, many African countries now attach great importance to education, including Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and other countries have issued education-related policies in recent years. Even Zimbabwe, which has long been regarded as a model of backwardness, has basically implemented free compulsory education in primary and secondary schools, and most schools are equipped with infirmary.

Judging from various indicators, Africa can be regarded as a blue ocean market with considerable value.

Bloggers have previously visited stationery stores in Africa and found that many stationery prices are several times higher than in China. The key reason is that there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor in Africa. The rich basically go to private schools and are the main users of stationery. It can even be said that the high local prices of stationery and books are not actually prepared for the poor.

Attaching importance to education means a big market, high prices mean high profits, and Chinese stationery goes to sea in Africa to win. Moreover, while obtaining economic benefits, Chinese stationery enterprises will also make the prices of local stationery products more reasonable and help poor African children to study and reduce costs, which can be called a great good deed.

Chinese stationery goes to sea

Find the next blue ocean market.

Affected by multiple factors, domestic stationery sales have become very unsatisfactory in recent years.

According to data from the China Pen Association, in 2020, affected by the epidemic factors, 212 enterprises above designated size in the pen industry achieved main business income of 14.5 billion billion yuan, down 11% year-on-year. In 2021, the impact of the epidemic has not yet ended, superimposed on the "double reduction" policy, the domestic pen industry 217 enterprises above the size of the main business income of 15 billion yuan, still running at a low level.

According to the data published in the "China Industrial Statistics Yearbook", the operating income of manufacturing enterprises in China's stationery industry in 2023 was about 18.8 billion yuan, the growth rate was only single digits, and the recovery process was far less than the industry's expectations.

Judging from the performance of listed companies, it can also confirm the subtle changes in the domestic stationery industry.

Take the domestic stationery leader Chenguang shares as an example, in 2019, Chenguang shares of writing tools and student stationery to achieve revenue of 2.187 billion yuan, 2.645 billion yuan, up 12.36 percent, 42.35 percent year-on-year, when the entire industry is still a high-growth market.

But in 2020, its two businesses achieved revenue of $2.28 billion and $2.706 billion, and the growth rate slipped to 4.29 and 2.29 percent. By the most special time in 2022, the impact of the superimposed double reduction, after a significant decline in its performance, completely bid farewell to the era of high growth. For the whole of last year, these two businesses achieved revenue of 2.273 billion yuan and 3.466 billion yuan, up 4.83 percent and 8.58 percent year-on-year.

As an industry leader, Chenguang did show some resilience during the decline, but other companies have not had such a good time. For example, Xinhua Media's stationery revenue from 2019 to 2023 was 70.68 million yuan, 54.16 million yuan, 44.37 million yuan, 26.01 million yuan, and 17.2 million yuan, respectively, all the way down.

In order to resist the downward trend of the industry, many companies have to start rolling in various tricks, such as launching new products jointly with well-known cartoon characters, and even introducing fancy stationery such as rubber crumbs mini vacuum cleaners, desktop cleaners, and electric pencil sharpeners.

Stationery companies try to keep growth by the toy of stationery

These measures are limited and far from enough to resist the market's concerns about the future decline of the new population. According to the data released by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, the number of primary school students in Beijing was about 850000 in 2015, and the number increased to about 1.08 million in 2023. Benefiting from the liberalization of the two child policy in the early stage, the number of students has increased in recent years.

But the precipitous fall in China's birth population cannot be reversed. In 2020, the number of new births in China fell to 12 million, compared with 9.02 million last year. This means that the domestic stationery market will continue to shrink in the future.

Stationery manufacturers rely on the price advantage of domestic mass production, have begun to look for opportunities overseas. In the past year, my country's cumulative exports of cultural, educational and office supplies totaled US $38.929 billion, the highest level in the past five years.

Among them, the top ten countries in my country's cultural and educational office supplies exports are the United States, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Singapore, Germany, Mexico, and the Russian Federation. The total export value of the ten countries is 18.192 billion billion US dollars, accounting for about my country's cultural and educational office supplies exports. 46.73% of the total.

The sudden emergence of Africa is one of the biggest windfall, the region is becoming the focus of Chinese stationery dealers to accelerate the layout, and even is considered to be the fastest growing market for Chinese stationery exports in the future. Many domestic traders have established a number of distribution networks in Africa, there is a big posture.

Why Africa?

The formation of stationery blue ocean market.

It is not difficult to answer why stationery dealers look at the African market. The essence of the product going to sea is that the market space is large enough, the growth potential is strong enough, and it is best to have a potential energy difference to achieve a dimension reduction blow. The African market just meets these points.

In terms of total population, the population of Africa is about the same as that of China, both of which are about 1.4 billion. But half of Africa's population is under the age of 25, and the population structure is very healthy.

Judging from the birth rate, Africa has confirmed the law of "the poorer the more you can give birth, the poorer the more you love life. According to the traditional secular concept of Africa, a large population symbolizes the prosperity of the tribe, and the most direct way to increase the population is to have more children. -- In the case of backward medical environment, the mortality rate cannot be controlled. For those agricultural areas in Africa, one more child and one more labor force will give birth as much as possible.

Among the current African countries, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (DRC), Angola, Tanzania, Zambia and other countries have fertility rates higher than 4, which is a figure that many other countries cannot match.

A good birth rate guarantees the growth rate of the total population. The population of the African continent accounts for about 1/6 of the world's total population. Since World War II, Africa has begun an era of rapid population growth. It once became the region with the fastest population growth rate in the world. The annual population growth rate is as high as 2.5, which is more than three times the global average growth rate.

According to research by the Global Urban Institute (GCI) of the University of Toronto in Canada, it is estimated that by 2100, the world's three most populous cities will be born in Africa. They are Lagos in Nigeria, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Perhaps in the eyes of many people, due to poverty, the attention to education in Africa is extremely limited. In fact, every country in Africa now pays great attention to the development of education. For example, Ethiopia issued the "Education and Training Policy", which is committed to expanding the coverage of basic education. Nigeria put forward the goal of improving the quality of education in the "Education 2030 Vision", and strengthened support for girls' education to promote gender equality, south Africa has launched the 2030 National Development Plan, which aims to improve the overall level of education through teacher training, improvement of teaching materials and construction of school infrastructure.

Zimbabwe, which is known for its inflation, also attaches great importance to education, with free and compulsory education in primary and secondary schools.

According to UNESCO data, the current primary school enrollment rate in Africa is approaching 90%, and countries like Côte d'Ivoire are working towards a 100% enrollment rate from primary school to secondary school.

The huge birth population superimposed on the increase in education rates has filled Africa's stationery market with endless imagination,. This year, the total revenue of the stationery industry in Africa is expected to reach $2.235 billion billion, and the average annual growth rate of revenue is expected to be 24.76 from 2024 to 2027. By 2027, the size of the stationery market in Africa is expected to grow to $4.287 billion billion.

In Africa, there is no industrial production of stationery, and the products are mainly imported. The Chinese stationery industry, which has a great advantage over Japanese, European and American products, will naturally look to Africa.

unique meaning

The unity of economic interests and social responsibility.

On the trembles, a blogger once visited a stationery store in Kinshasa, Africa, and found that the price of local stationery was extremely exaggerated: a whiteboard pen was 6 yuan (about 6 times the domestic price), and it was only cheap. In the store, the blogger also saw a more expensive whiteboard pen, which was converted into more than 10 yuan, and other stationery in the store was also not cheap.

If you introduce the background of Kinshasa, people will feel more about such prices. Kinshasa is the capital of the Congo, and many people live below the poverty line due to the volatile situation of the authorities. Fishermen near the Congo River earn $2 a day from fishing, and the local economy lags behind more than many people think.

Such an exaggerated price means that there are still many gaps in the stationery market in Africa. Some people in the industry have revealed that if the quantity of domestic gel pens is more than 10,000, the price is about 20 cents, and the price of reselling to African dealers is 2 yuan, ten times the difference.

But on the other hand, since the local area is so poor, why is the price of stationery so expensive, not afraid that the local people can not afford it?

In fact, many people can afford it. Africa is not a place where there is no accumulation of wealth at all, but a region with a huge gap between the rich and the poor. Often urban areas have better infrastructure, education and employment opportunities. It is not uncommon for local tyrants to wear a big gold hat, drive a gilded car, and have fun on luxury yachts. There are more poor people in various countries, and many people are still worrying about rigid daily expenditures.

Take Kinshasa as an example. Congo itself is rich in mineral resources. Controlling minerals means wealth. If you mix a middle-level leader in the industrial chain, you will have the opportunity to enjoy wealth. On the other side of the Congo River is the rich area, where each household basically has millions of dollars in assets, and all kinds of luxury cars and luxury goods can be seen everywhere.

The most fundamental reason why stationery prices can be sold at such a high price in such a poor area is that the audience of these goods is not families earning $2 a day, but local rich people.

This and more than 20 years ago Santana can sell to 200000, comparable to the first-tier city housing prices a truth. The prices of these commodities are not determined by the purchasing power of the local masses, but by the more real supply-demand relationship in the context of the inability to produce stationery in Africa.

In Africa, rich families basically choose private schools, and they are the main audience for local high-priced stationery and books.

As a result, the significance of Chinese stationery going to sea in Africa has become more concrete: on the one hand, it is really profitable, but on the other hand, the influx of low-cost Chinese stationery will inevitably make local stationery prices tend to be reasonable.

At that time, children who once could not afford to go to school will have more opportunities to afford stationery and books.