Will shrimp paste hot pot at 59 yuan/person become the next 'beef rib buffet'?

59 yuan/person shrimp paste hot pot: small-town youth achieving 'shrimp paste freedom'?

Recently, Neejoo found that a second-tier small city in Hebei has opened several 'shrimp paste hot pot' restaurants.

Unlike regular hot pot buffets, these places are 'shrimp paste museums': from plain shrimp paste to roe shrimp paste, mushroom shrimp paste, squid shrimp paste, even dragon fruit shrimp paste—dozens of varieties.

Besides shrimp paste, the stores also have chicken paste, beef paste, fish paste, etc., all served in bamboo tube-shaped containers, arranged in rows in the freezer.

Besides shrimp paste, there are also beef, lamb, vegetables, mushrooms, and other traditional hot pot items, plus desserts, drinks, and ice jelly like in regular buffets. Some stores even add pizza and other staples.

Of course, most customers come for the 'shrimp paste freedom'.

In fact, in the past year, a number of shrimp paste hot pot chain brands have emerged in Hebei alone, even expanding to other provinces.

For example, Shijiazhuang-based Cijie Freshly Made Shrimp Paste Hot Pot, founded last year, now has 66 stores reaching Shandong, Jilin, Jiangsu, etc. Another brand from Hebei, Chengkebei Shrimp Paste Hot Pot, founded around the same time, has opened nearly 40 stores in Hebei, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, and Jilin.

Jianglaolao Shrimp Paste Seafood Hot Pot, which opened its first store in Zhejiang, now has a footprint across 12 provinces, opening 20 new stores this year alone. Founded in 2018, Laoxiaoxian Shrimp Paste Seafood Hot Pot also accelerated expansion last year, opening 40 new stores since 2025.

The category is so hot that it even spread to South Korea. Recently, a netizen posted that South Korea now also has shrimp paste hot pot, with 'bamboo tube + shrimp paste' configuration identical to China's.

Why shrimp paste?

The rise of shrimp paste hot pot has several reasons.

First, shrimp paste has seen increasing application in the food industry, already a classic single product in the hot pot track.

According to Maywin offline retail monitoring data, shrimp paste category sales grew 56.9% YoY in 2025, with volume up 60.6%, the fastest growth among frozen food subcategories.

In five provinces (Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hunan, Guizhou), shrimp paste even overtook beef balls to become the No.1 hot pot ball category.

Second, shrimp paste carries an inherent premium, meeting consumers' expectation of 'getting value for money'.

Despite its popularity, this 'frozen dark horse' is not cheap. For example, at Haidilao, a portion of signature large-grain shrimp paste (about 140g) costs RMB 74. Even in supermarkets, a pack of Anjoy shrimp paste costs about RMB 16.5/150g.

Correspondingly, eating a few portions of shrimp paste at a buffet can offset the 59 yuan ticket, and adding other items can achieve 'value recovery'.

Most importantly, the upstream shrimp paste supply chain is getting stronger, with increasing production technology and output.

For example, Daixiaji focuses on the single category of shrimp paste, and took the lead in drafting the 'Shrimp Paste' group standard and 'Frozen Shrimp Paste' national standard in 2023 and 2024. It now achieves monthly sales over 100M and annual sales over RMB 1B.

For the catering industry, especially hot pot, upstream supply chain is the core lifeline for cost reduction, efficiency, and quality assurance. The rise of these shrimp paste supply chains also brought a turning point for shrimp paste hot pot.

Will shrimp paste hot pot become the next 'beef ribs'?

According to Chenzhi Big Data, the number of shrimp paste hot pot stores grew rapidly from less than 10 to over 500 in the past year, mainly in lower-tier markets.

Using a single-product buffet model to differentiate and opening stores quickly inevitably draws comparison to the similar 'beef rib buffet'.

The latter boomed in H2 2024 but saw mass closures in early 2025, with some merchants losing over RMB 2M in just three months.

Of course, unlike beef ribs, which were driven by falling beef prices and then collapsed when prices rose, shrimp paste costs are relatively controllable, especially with upstream supply chain development reinforcing the foundation.

But it's worth noting that ingredient cost was only the 'last straw' for beef ribs.

Another major reason for beef rib buffets' decline was that most stores merely rode the 'beef rib' trend without converting category heat into brand repurchase, ultimately exiting in a homogenized market.

For these emerging shrimp paste hot pot brands, challenges of brand differentiation, product innovation, and store operations management remain. Whether they can achieve long-term scale still needs observation.