Two trade fairs, two markets, and two very different ways of evaluating food machinery. Gearline’s field observations from Asia.
Exporting food machinery to Asia is no longer a question of simply presenting European engineering to the market. Over the past few weeks, our team followed FOOMA Japan in Tokyo and ProPak China in Shanghai, two of the most important trade fairs for food processing machinery, process equipment and packaging technologies.
We went there with the same question we ask ourselves at every edition: where is this market really moving, and what does an Italian manufacturer need today in order to be taken seriously?
Let us start with a scene from Shanghai. At ProPak China, a buyer stopped in front of an Italian machine and called it “beautiful”. He meant it. A few minutes later, however, he was already at the stand of a Chinese manufacturer just a few metres away, asking exactly the same technical questions. The compliment was genuine. So was the comparison.
And it is precisely there, in those few metres between one stand and another, that export development in Asia is now decided.
What struck us most was how different buyer questions have become. The product category may be the same, but Tokyo and Shanghai do not think in the same way. In both markets, demand for technology is real and strong. What is no longer enough is to present “European engineering” as the main argument.
Buyers want to understand two very concrete things: what this machine changes in their production, and what risk they take by choosing a foreign supplier.
Exporting Food Machinery to Asia: Two Markets, Two Types of Proof
FOOMA Japan and ProPak China made one point very clear: Asia is not a single export market. Japan and China may both require advanced technology, but they ask suppliers to prove value in different ways.
In Japan, the key issue is continuity. In China, it is differential value against increasingly capable local alternatives.
Japan: The Shift Is On
At the entrance to FOOMA, this year’s slogan was clear: “The Shift is On”. It was not just a promotional phrase. Japan faces a serious labour shortage, its population is ageing, and automation is no longer a luxury. It is becoming a structural necessity.
This changes the tone of the entire conversation.
For a Japanese buyer, price alone says very little. What matters, almost obsessively, is whether a machine can enter an existing production line without creating instability. Documentation, hygiene requirements, spare parts, maintenance, operator training and service availability five years from now all carry weight.
In many cases, they matter as much as pure performance, sometimes more.
Walking through the halls, the level of specialisation is immediately visible. Some companies do one thing only, but they do it at an extraordinary level.
We saw live demonstrations of matcha grinding with stone mills, alongside coffee applications, carried out with gloves, cleanliness and great attention to detail. Nothing appeared accidental.
We also saw process machines, such as stainless-steel cutter mixers, designed first and foremost around hygiene and repeatable results.
In a market where stability and production continuity are considered part of the product itself, a machine that performs well but introduces uncertainty is difficult to approve. The person proposing the purchase must be able to defend that decision internally.
In Japan, uncertainty is hard to defend. The supplier who wins is the one who makes change controlled, documented and predictable.
China: A Demanding Market, but More Open Than It May Seem
The first point we would make to an Italian manufacturer is that the Chinese market is active, concrete and still strongly interested in technology. ProPak China was full of serious buyers, real projects and real budgets. In China, Italian machinery is still associated with quality, technical credibility and strong design. For companies coming from Italy, the starting point is better than many assume.
What needs to be understood clearly, however, is that this alone is no longer enough. Chinese buyers recognise Italian quality, but they then ask for proof: higher productivity, less waste, fewer machine stops, faster format changeovers, lower labour requirements, greater energy efficiency and consistent results over time. They want to know, with numbers in hand, what changes in their production and how quickly the investment can pay back.
This becomes very clear when looking at how local competitors communicate. On one stand, the message was written in large characters: “the oil does not blacken, return on investment in six months”, with patent claims included. It was a message built entirely around concrete, measurable return.
A more polished caption-style translation for the sentence about the stand would be:
The message was not built around prestige or origin, but around measurable business impact: lower risk, faster payback and a clear operational gain.
And this is where many European manufacturers stop short. Competing in China is not about lowering the price. It is about translating technical superiority into the language Chinese buyers use to make decisions: productivity, savings and return on investment.
Italian machinery is often genuinely worth more. The problem is that this “more” is rarely demonstrated in the right way.
Local Competitors Have Grown, but the Premium Space Is Still Open
It would be a mistake to tell ourselves that China is an easy market. Local manufacturers have grown significantly. Today, China is one of the world’s major producers of this type of machinery, offering advanced automation, complete turnkey lines and AI features prominently displayed.
But this is precisely where the opportunity lies.
Local competition is especially strong on price, speed and volume. It is not always equally strong on long-term reliability, consistent quality, or the ability to handle complex, high-value products. That is exactly the space where an Italian manufacturer can still win, provided it enters the market in the right way, with the right proof, and in front of the right customer.
The premium and upper-mid segments of the Chinese market remain open to companies that can explain their value clearly, concretely and commercially.
There is also an evolving regulatory context. Standards around food-contact materials and traceability are becoming stricter, and compliance is now part of the commercial discussion, not a final technical detail. This is another reason to enter the market with the right positioning from the beginning, rather than discovering these issues only after negotiations have already started.
The Chinese Market Can Be Won, but It Requires the Right Approach
Japan and China do not ask for the same type of proof. In Japan, the task is to demonstrate continuity. In China, it is to demonstrate differential value, with numbers in hand, against a local alternative that is now technically capable.
But the two markets have one thing in common: technical excellence does not sell itself. It has to be translated into the kind of evidence that each market expects.
This is exactly where many Italian manufacturers lose ground in China. The product is ready. The proof, very often, is not. The machine may be better, but that advantage does not reach the buyer in the language and format used to make the decision.
This is the work we do at Gearline.
We help Italian manufacturers of food machinery and packaging equipment enter the Chinese market with positioning that works: we translate technical superiority into the ROI argument Chinese buyers understand, identify the right distributors and importers, and build presence in the premium segment where Italian quality can truly win.
If you are evaluating the Chinese market for your machinery, or if you have already tried without achieving the results you expected, let’s talk. A focused conversation is often the fastest way to understand whether, and how, Asia can work for your company.