The country's catering sector faces more challenges this year after witnessing a downward spiral in recent years, Yao Jian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), told a news conference in Beijing Wednesday.

The catering industry is likely to go through reshuffling this year amid rising competition, especially among the businesses oriented toward mass consumers, the spokesman said.

China's catering sector raked in 2.34 trillion yuan ($383.14 billion) in revenues in 2012, an increase of 13.6 percent compared to a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

The growth rate, however, slipped by 3.3 percentage points from the previous year. The catering growth has fallen below the country's retail sales growth for the third consecutive year.

Enterprises in the catering field have taken a hit in the slowing business environment, with their profits sagging.

Weighed down by the economic slowdown and rapidly rising costs, the country's catering enterprises saw their total profits in 2012 almost flat with the previous year, according to the MOFCOM statistics covering the major catering enterprises in the countries.

As for the high-end catering businesses, which have been forced out of favor in the wake of the new leadership's stringent calls to fight against luxury spending and corruption, transformation would be an urgent task, Feng Enyuan, secretary-general of the China Cuisine Association, told the same news conference.

Beijing Xiangeqing Group Co, a well-known high-end catering company, posted 220 million yuan in losses in the first half in its financial disclosure filed to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Monday, in a fresh sign of the plight confronting the high-end catering sector.

Xiangeqing cited rising operation costs and sluggish demand for high-end dining for the loss.

Global Times