Online sales of ready-to-cook dishes running up to Chinese New Year's Eve surged by 380 percent year-on-year during a 30-day online shopping festival beginning in January 2021, according to data from China's Ministry of Commerce.

Semi-cooked dishes on sale on an e-commerce site. （Screenshot from Tmall）

China has called on residents to stay put during the Spring Festival to reduce the spread of COVID-19, which has served as an opportunity for catering companies to promote semi-cooked dishes through online channels.

On one e-commerce platform, restaurants have launched both New Year's Eve dinner packages that include a dozen different dishes, as well as set meals for one person.

Xinliangji Food Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. is a catering company specialized in the production and sale of semi-finished foods. During the shopping event, the company's gross merchandise volume from the sales of its semi-cooked dishes reached 5 million yuan ($776,638), up 30 percent from January last year, said Gao Yang, chief marketing officer at the company.

Gao said that semi-cooked or ready-to-serve food has become more popular in recent years, buoyed by a stronger demand among younger groups of consumers, who prefer to avoid the hassle of cooking at home.

He added that supply and demand between consumers and catering enterprises should be more accurately matched to further promote the development of the market for semi-cooked and ready-to-serve foods.

China's leading food delivery platform, Ele.me, said ready-to-cook dinners and dishes for one person or two could more readily meet the demand arising from people staying put during the Spring Festival holiday.

Xu Xiongjun, founder of a market positioning company, believes that convenience and safety are the two primary standards that semi-cooked foods must meet, adding that customers nowadays also have an increasing demand for customized catering services.