The Food Ingredients Asia-China is one the
leading exhibitions in China’s food, health, and nutraceuticals industries. The
event will be hosted in Shanghai from June 20 to 22 together with 6 other
events around China’s food and healthcare industry.
The trade fair in Shanghai brings together
manufacturers, traders, and buyers from all over the world to enable
connections in China’s food and beverage industry. Furthermore, the newest
trends in the market are going to be presented, as domestic and foreign firms
are using the platform to increase their brand awareness in the fast growing
Chinese market.
Market intelligence firm CCM provides an
overview about China’s food ingredients market to prepare attendees for the
FIAC ahead. Schedule a meeting with CCM and its parent company Kcomber by
contacting econtact@cnchemicals.com.
Vitamins
The vitamins industry has seen a fast
development in China. Back in the 1950s, China started production of vitamins
and became the largest production and export base in the early 21st century. In
the 1990s, the vitamin industry suffered tight supply and thus the market
prices of vitamins were high. After more than 10 years of rapid development, the
vitamins industry entered the adjustment period and then the market prices of
vitamins began to decline. What’s more, in recent years, market prices of
vitamins witnessed sharp fluctuations.
Fierce competition and progress of
production technology have been pushing vitamin industry to be more and more
centralized in China in recent years. In the vitamin market in China, some big
enterprise such as Northeast Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., North China
Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Medicine Co., Ltd., Zhejiang NHU Co. Ltd.
and Zhejiang Hangzhou Xinfu Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd. are dominant and they can
easily influence the price trend of vitamins in China.
Vitamins are mainly applied in feed,
pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics and beverage industry. Thereinto, feed industry
is the largest consumption field of vitamins. Rapid development of feed
industry drove up the vitamin market prices in the past but situation changed
when the supply of vitamins became adequate. As application of vitamins has
been broadening in pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics and beverage industry, it
will be an important factor influencing vitamin prices in the future.
China is a main vitamin exporter and most
of the products are exported to the USA, Malaysia, Germany, Japan, the
Netherlands, and Vietnam. With the export volume of vitamins increasing, the
overseas markets are more and more important for vitamin industry in China.
Therefore, the demand change from overseas markets is expected to largely
affect vitamin prices in China. Compared with developed countries, China mainly
exports low price vitamins such as vitamin active pharmaceutical ingredient.
Amino
Acids
Firstly, as a mature product with an adequate
supply in China, monosodium glutamate (MSG) has completed its industry
integration, while many small manufacturers have stopped self-production. The
price competition in China's MSG market has got to an end.
Secondly, other amino acid products that
have been trapped in oversupply, like lysine and threonine, are still under
industry integration both in China and worldwide. However, the domestic
capacity has continued its expansion since 2013, increasing the domestic competition.
Besides, new capacities have been launched in other regions outside China, like
the US and Russian Federation. This will also impact the export of Chinese
enterprises and it's predicted that the price competition may occur again in
the future.
Thirdly, as new capacities in China and
Southeast Asia have been completed or are expected to be completed, global
distribution of methionine supply is to be more balanced. At the same time, the
domestic supply of methionine will be greatly improved in the future.
Last but not least, some minor amino acids
like valine, and rumen-protected amino acids, have also attracted more and more
enterprises both in China and worldwide, because of their high profit margins
or huge market potential.
Sugar
and Sweeteners
The production of sugar in China is mainly
restricted by the supply of sugar crops including sugarcane and beetroot.
Because of the growth trend of sugarcane, the output of sugar often displays
cycles.
China has witnessed a three-year-growth of
sugar output since 2011/2012 season. In 2013/2014 season, the domestic sugar
output reached 13.32 million tonnes. The output of cane sugar accounted for
about 94% of the total, while beet sugar took up for 6%.
The top 11 sugar manufacturers in China
have accounted for about 65% of total sugar production in both capacity and
output. Almost all of these top manufacturers have expanded their capacities in
the past few seasons, through purchases, technical transformations, and
construction of new sugar plants.
Import volume of sugar has continued to be
high in the recent three seasons. Because of the high cost in sugar crops,
there is an obvious price gap between the prices of sugar in domestic and
overseas markets, making it profitable to process imported raw sugar in China.
However, the price gap has greatly narrowed since 2013/2014 season, and the
enthusiasm of importers has cooled down.
For the production of stevia sweeteners,
the average annual market price and output were unstable. From 2011 to 2013,
both price and output decreased. Take the high-grade stevia sweetener products
(RA over 95%) for example, the price fell from USD129/kg to USD108/kg. Besides,
the output decline from 217 tonnes to 74 tonnes. From 2014 to H1 2015, the
price and output increased. However, the price started to drop again, nearly
reaching a lowest point at about USD90/kg from H1 2015 to Q3 2015.
In addition, the total capacity and capacity
utilization rate of stevia sweeteners, including high grades and low ones, in
China kept stable from 2011 to Q3 2015. The capacity was about 27,000 t/a with
a capacity utilization rate of about 12%.
For the consumption, there's something
different from domestic sales and exports. In China, it showed an increasing
trend from 2011 to 2014 with a sales volume from 720 tonnes to 770 tonnes. As
for export volume, it declined from 2011 to 2013 but turning to increase in
2014. Most of them were used in food, beverage and medicine industries. It's
expected that the total consumption of stevia sweeteners would keep stable in
2015.
About CCM
CCM is the leading market intelligence provider for China’s agriculture, chemicals, food & ingredients and life science markets.
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Meet Kcomber at the exhibition on June 20 – 22. Please contact econtact@cnchemicals.com for making an appointment.