Italian food sells abroad an identity even before a product. It sells the idea of a country that knows how to make food better than almost anyone, of a tradition that justifies a higher price, of a certification of origin that works as a guarantee of value. This identity has crossed two decades of internationalization with a success that has few parallels in Italian production sectors. It has, however, a specific weakness when it moves to the Asian markets, and it's the same weakness that almost all the industry blogs recount: treating Asia as a single block.
Food Asia doesn't exist. There are markets that share a geographic location and little else. The high-end Chinese consumer who buys Italian wine in a Shanghai boutique has more in common with the German consumer in Munich than with the Vietnamese consumer in Hanoi. The Japanese audience for Italian cheese follows purchasing logics, consumption rituals, and distribution channels that resemble the French audience for wagyu more than the Korean audience for the same product category. Treating these markets as a single destination means applying generic strategies to contexts that require specific work. It's exactly the error that many companies are making, and that they pay dearly in the acquisition cost of each client.
It's worth taking a tour of the four or five main markets by name, because the generalization "Asia" hides dynamics that must be recounted one by one.
China: the market that has stopped being what you thought
For years the discourse on Italian food in China was built on a premise: there's an expanding middle class that's discovering quality Western products, and Italy is well positioned to intercept this demand. It was a correct reading of the previous decade.
What happened afterward deserves a more attentive reading. The Chinese middle class is no longer in a phase of discovery — it's in a phase of maturation, with everything this transition entails. The high-end Chinese consumer today knows the Italian brands, knows how to distinguish a Brunello from a Barolo, has traveled to Italy or has friends who have, frequents Italian restaurants run by Italian chefs in China, and no longer lets themselves be convinced by generic narratives about Made in Italy. They want specific products, specific producers, specific stories. They want, above all, experiences consistent between what they saw in Italy and what they find in China.
The mid-range Chinese consumer — the far more numerous one — has, however, developed a price sensitivity that wasn't there five years ago, and a capacity for comparison through the e-commerce platforms that makes premium positioning much harder to sustain. Italian products in this tier compete with a local offering and with other European origins that have built effective marketing in recent years — the French on wine, the Spanish on olive oil, the Danish on dairy.
Chinese digital distribution is then a universe that deserves specific knowledge. Tmall Global and JD Worldwide remain the reference platforms for cross-border, but Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) and Xiaohongshu (RED) have become the real terrain of positioning-building for premium brands. Livestream commerce is no longer a novelty — it's the main sales channel for many high-end food products, with dynamics that require partnerships with local KOLs (key opinion leaders) and specific content formats. Thinking you can manage the presence in China without holding at least three of these channels today means being visible in a marginal way.
Japan: the market where quality isn't enough
Japan is probably the Asian market most misunderstood in the food sector. The premise with which you approach it — "the Japanese appreciate quality, they're willing to pay a fair price, they want authenticity" — is true but incomplete, and the incompleteness makes the difference between success and failure.
The high-end Japanese consumer evaluates quality with criteria that often don't coincide with the Western ones. Absolute consistency between the different supplies over time is more important than the occasional peak of excellence. The presentation of the product — packaging, communication, attached informational material — is evaluated with the same rigor as the product itself. The reliability of the distribution chain is considered an integral part of quality, not a separate factor.
This means that an excellent producer who enters Japan with the mindset "our product is the best in the world, it'll speak for itself" risks colliding with a market that evaluates things different from those the producer thinks they're communicating. The narrative of the small Italian artisanal producer works if it's recounted well and supported by a visual presentation up to Japanese standards. It works much less if it's mechanically translated from the communication that works in the home market.
Japanese distribution channels then have a hierarchical logic that is often underestimated. Entry through a prominent trading company — the large traditional Japanese commercial groups — opens doors that remain closed for years to those who attempt alternative routes. It costs more in margins, but it builds a positioning that has long consolidation times and long-term returns that repay the initial investment.
South Korea: the market growing on European food
South Korea is one of the most dynamic food markets in Asia, and probably the most underestimated by medium-sized companies. It has three characteristics that make it interesting in a specific way.
The consumption culture is strongly influenced by audiovisual content — drama, films, content creators — and this means that a food product that manages to enter a popular Korean narrative context can see its demand grow in a non-linear way. It's a market where content marketing produces effects that in other markets require much larger investments in traditional channels.
The sensitivity to quality is high and the willingness to pay for premium products is sustained — especially in the urban 25-45 age tier. Italian wine grows steadily, quality olive oil has seen a significant expansion, premium baked goods have opened spaces that weren't there five years ago.
The digital consumption infrastructure is among the most advanced in the world. The Korean e-commerce platforms — Coupang, Naver Shopping, Kakao — have service standards (same-day delivery, integration with review systems, personalization) that surpass many European equivalents. A company that wants to hold Korea without adapting its digital infrastructure to these standards starts with an evident competitive handicap.
Southeast Asia: five markets that aren't the same market
The most common error in export planning toward Southeast Asia is considering it a unitary area. Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia have substantially different economic trajectories, consumer profiles, and distribution channels.
Vietnam has the most rapid growth and the consumer most open to the new, with an urbanization that produces millions of new mid-range consumers each year. Italian food has significant growth margins here especially on products that integrate with the local cuisine — pasta, oils, baked goods — more than on purely substitutive consumption categories.
Thailand has a more mature middle class and an internal tourist market that amplifies the demand for premium European products. The segment of sweets, artisanal gelato, high-quality baked goods has important commercial spaces here.
Indonesia is the largest market in Southeast Asia by population and the most complex regulatorily, with halal requirements that impose specific planning for many food categories. It must be approached with dedicated investment — it isn't a market to approach as an extension of others.
The Philippines have a tradition of openness to Western products above the regional average and a modern distribution structure in the main urban areas. They're a reasonable entry market for those who want to test Southeast Asia before bigger commitments.
Malaysia is a smaller market but with high purchasing power in the urban areas and a cosmopolitan population that's receptive to high-end European products.
Generalizing these five markets is the guarantee of a diluted strategy that works badly on all five.
The cross-cutting themes that require attention
Even with the differences between markets, some themes cut across the entire region and deserve a dedicated note.
Certifications and traceability. The premium Asian consumer gives certifications of origin a weight higher than the European average. DOP, IGP, organic, specific geographic indications aren't just labels — they're guarantees of value in markets that have a historical sensitivity to the question of authenticity (a daughter also of the massive presence of counterfeit products). Investing in the communication of the certification in a visual, legible way, verifiable by the consumer via QR code or similar systems, produces a return that is often underestimated.
Cold-chain logistics and shelf-life management. Food toward Asia requires logistics infrastructure of a level that "traditional" shipping doesn't guarantee. Fresh products, products that require a cold chain, products with a limited shelf life require specific planning and often partnerships with specialized logistics operators. The underestimation of this aspect is one of the most frequent causes of failed market entries.
Adaptation of the product and the format. The format of the product often must be rethought. Smaller packs, adapted recipe formulation (less salt, less sugar in some contexts, more in others), packaging that tells a story legible by the local consumer. It isn't always necessary to modify the product, but it's always necessary to ask what changes in the destination context.
Platform-specific digital communication. The digital communication strategies that work in the Western markets — Instagram, Facebook, Google Ads — cover Asia partially and in some cases are unusable. Thinking of the Asian digital presence as a translation of the European presence is one of the reasons many companies are invisible in the Asian markets despite investing in digital marketing. A specific presence must be built, on the platforms the local consumer really uses.
What has changed with AI in food export planning
Three years ago, building a serious food strategy for a specific Asian market required specialized agencies, exploratory trips, local consultants, months of primary research. Today a significant portion of that work is within the reach of a medium-sized company that knows how to use AI analysis tools.
The analysis of the target market — who the direct competitors are, what the price positioning is, which claims work, which certifications are valued — is done in days, not months. The result doesn't replace the direct knowledge built by traveling and meeting partners, but it drastically reduces the initial learning curve.
The cultural adaptation of commercial content — packaging, product sheets, trade-fair materials, digital communication — benefits from the AI generation and review tools that allow testing variants before producing them physically. What five years ago required an agency, translators, local designers can today be pre-validated with tools that cost a fraction.
The preliminary regulatory verification — which certifications are needed, which labeling is mandatory, which substances are prohibited or limited in the target country — is today obtained with AI systems in times that previously required specific consulting. The final verification remains legal and human, but the preliminary filter has eliminated much of the initial bureaucratic work.
AI doesn't replace physical presence in the market, relationships with distributors, direct knowledge of the consumer. But it has made Asian food exploring possible with an initial investment that until recently was reserved for structured companies. The SMEs that know how to use this advantage will build market positions that the SMEs of the previous generation couldn't afford.
Food export toward Asia isn't a single market. They're many markets, some of which share very little except the geographic location. The Italian companies that have understood this today hold some of these markets with significant results. The companies that keep talking about a "strategy for Asia" keep investing generic resources in contexts that require specific ones, and wonder why the return is slow to arrive.
The first step of the strategy isn't choosing the products to export. It's choosing which two or three Asian markets become priority, knowing them with the specificity they deserve, and building for each a plan that recognizes how different they are from one another. Everything else comes after.