China Market Assessment Underway
The Ministry of Agriculture, taking the lead on behalf of the Chinese government, and the Alliance have launched our market assessment of the Chinese cookstoves and fuels market. Planning meetings were held in Beijing from November 13-15 between the Alliance, our partners at the Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China (MOA) and the consulting firm Dalberg, who will be assisting with the design of the study and analyzing and compiling the results. The assessment will build off prior research to better understand the clean stoves and fuels sector in China, including current barriers to scale and adoption, and to identify specific interventions that can move the sector forward.
In addition to a national level assessment, the study will closely examine six provinces of China to gather region-specific insights. The following provinces have been identified based on their representations of regional variations in climate, geography, fuel availability and stove types that are currently used: Liaoning, Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Chongqing and Shaanxi. MOA representatives from each of these provinces were present at the planning meetings and shared valuable insights and recommendations for the design of the study.
The assessment will also include a mapping of the existing broad consumer segments in China and identify those with the greatest potential to reach scale in clean cookstove and fuel adoption. Targeted household surveys and focus group discussions will be conducted to better understand the needs and preferences of the identified consumer segments and provide recommendations for most effectively targeting each consumer segment, including messaging, distribution channels, and financing most appropriate to each segment.
Interim results of the market assessment will be released for review at a May stakeholder meeting in Beijing, with a final report slated for release in September 2014. The assessment is part of a larger collaboration between the Alliance and the Government of China (through the National Development and Reform Commission) to foster the widespread adoption of clean stoves for rural households in China in order to bring health, environmental, gender, and economic benefits to local communities. The study’s findings will contribute to the Alliance’s and the Chinese government’s planning around clean stove policies and initiatives.