Brand marketing expert and restaurant crisis management specialist Li Lichan: There is a reason why Inner Mongolia beef and mutton haven't broken out into major brands.

Ask AI · What are the key factors behind Inner Mongolia beef and lamb brands breaking through?

On March 25, the 2026 China Foodservice Industry Festival and the 35th HCC Global Foodservice Industry Expo, jointly hosted by the World Chinese Cuisine Federation and Hongcan.com, were held at the Hangzhou Convention and Exhibition Center. Among them, during a roundtable session at the “2026 China Food Ingredients Development Forum,” brand marketing practice expert and foodservice crisis management expert Li Lichan shared her views.

△ Brand marketing practice expert and foodservice crisis management expert Li Lichan

Li Lichan said that a good brand has a solid foundation: the supply chain, which ensures the brand has the endurance for continuous development. She also noted that the supply chain provides this. Therefore, a safe, stable, consistently high-quality supply chain or set of ingredients with core competitiveness is the core competitive advantage for a brand’s development.

Taking Little Sheep as an example, she said that at the time, Little Sheep’s signature offering—a plate of meat and a pot of soup—were the brand’s core competitive advantages. It was these two “powerhouse” products that helped Little Sheep become popular across China. The plate of meat from Little Sheep used six-month-old lamb meat from the Xilingol grasslands, and the pot of soup used a secret recipe hot pot base.

In Li Lichan’s view, regardless of whether a company is big or small—whether it has 10 stores, 50 stores, or 100 stores—the supply-chain buildout must follow a step-by-step process, growing in stages. For foodservice brands, the supply chain is a steady foundation for business growth.

In addition, Li Lichan also shared a thought-provoking phenomenon: why hasn’t Inner Mongolia’s beef and lamb truly managed to break out as big-name brands?

Li Lichan pointed out that Inner Mongolia accounts for the largest share of beef and lamb in China and also makes the highest contribution. But as raw ingredients from Inner Mongolia, beef and lamb have not been turned into branded products; many people say they can’t name the truly well-known brands.

Li Lichan said that for Inner Mongolia beef, when used for civilian consumption, it faces strong pressure from imported beef. Imported beef has more price advantages than Inner Mongolia beef raw materials. The feeding cost for Inner Mongolia beef is very high: it is basically split half grass-fed and half grain-fed. Meanwhile, most foreign beef is purely grain-fed.

As for Inner Mongolia’s sheep, there are many types and the regionality is extremely strong, making it hard to form big brands. Therefore, they are more suitable for niche brands with strong cultural attributes.

Besides, Inner Mongolia is relatively lagging in market-front docking and service alignment with foodservice companies; it is not as good as businesses in central China, and not as good as those in southern China.

With multiple factors stacking up, Inner Mongolia’s beef and lamb have not managed to break out as big brands.

In this regard, Li Lichan hopes that in the future these high-quality beef and lamb can break out of Inner Mongolia, deepen integration with more first-tier and top foodservice brands, truly achieve brand-building, improve their premium-earning ability, and create brands with cultural attributes.

“If ingredients are only exported as raw materials, they can only be sold at the price of raw ingredients. But once they are turned into food with culture, a soul, and a brand story, the added value will be completely different,” Li Lichan said.

Finally, Li Lichan also emphasized that foodservice companies and supply-chain companies are not in a client-vendor relationship; they are a community of shared interests and shared destiny. Only by working together—holding to a win-win mindset—can they go far and grow steadily.