Domestic stevia sweetener market may develop slowly in future

Domestic stevia sweetener market developed at a slow speed during past years, and it is predicted that this trend will continue in the near future, according to CCM International’s August issue of Sweeteners China News.

In fact, China is the biggest production country of stevia sweetener in the world, with capacity and output coming to 20,400t/a and about 3,500 tonnes respectively in 2011. From 2007 to 2011, the capacity posted a CAGR up to 35.1%, and the output also grew at a CAGR of 21.8% due to the rapidly developing oversea stevia sweetener market. However, the domestic stevia sweetener market has not developed as rapidly as expected. For example, the consumption volume of stevia sweeteners was about 720 tonnes in China in 2011, only with a CAGR of 4.6% during 2007 to 2011. Moreover, the stevia sweeteners consumed in China are low-purity in general, since their price is lower than that of high purity.

 Three main reasons may explain why domestic stevia sweetener market developed at a slow speed during the past years.  

Actually, because of the strong demand from abroad, many domestic stevia sweetener producers focus on the oversea market, which can be reflected from the export volume of stevia sweeteners: China exported about 80% of its total output of stevia sweeteners in 2011. Besides, some new players of stevia sweetener industry are also attracted by the strong demand from abroad. For the latest example, Hunan Weijia Biotechnology Co., Ltd, a plant extract producer in China, signed up a stevia sweetener project with capacity of 500t/a in March 2012. And the company expressed that the project is for meeting the strong demand from overseas stevia sweetener market. Thus, the promotion of stevia sweeteners from domestic stevia sweetener producers isn't enough currently. And the popularity of stevia sweeteners is low in downstream (food and beverage) companies and consumers in China, which further leads to the small consumption.  

Besides, according to an insider from GLG Life Tech Corporation (GLG), one major stevia sweetener producer in China, domestic downstream companies tended to choose high intensity sweeteners (HIS) with low price during the past years, such as cyclamate, acesulfame-K and aspartame. In fact, according to CCM International's Price Update, the average ex-factory price of  steviol glycosides (RA95) has been higher than those of other HIS in China, and its latest quotation was USD133,363/t in June 2012. In addition, according to CCM International's investigation, the total consumption of cyclamate, acesulfame-K and aspartame was about 27,300 tonnes, accounting for 90.9% of the national HIS consumption in 2011, while the consumption of stevia sweeteners was only about 700 tonnes.  

At last, the government hasn't attached great importance on the development of domestic stevia sweetener industry. According to GLG, the company has enjoyed some preferential policies issued by the government only because it is a high-tech enterprise and owns patents of stevia seeds, while the government hasn't launched any preferential policies specifically for stevia sweetener industry during the past years. Thus, some small-scaled stevia sweetener producers may even have no chance to enjoy the preferential policies at all.

In fact, combined with consumers' growing awareness of natural and safe foods in many countries, the room for stevia sweeteners' demand increase will be huge in future. However, due to the demand from oversea market may continue to increase and the price of stevia sweeteners may still be too high for domestic downstream industry, the domestic stevia sweetener producers may remain their focus on overseas market while neglect domestic market, which may go on bringing negative impact to domestic stevia sweetener market in the near future.

Source: Sweeteners China News 1208

http://www.cnchemicals.com/Newsletter/NewsletterDetail_190.html

Content of Sweeteners China News 1208

Yucheng City awarded as China Nutrition and Health Industry City

Xinghua Green to launch solution about no after taste of stevia sweetener (RA98)

QHT formally changes its company name

Application for issuing corporate bonds of Nanning Sugar approved

JK Sucralose continues market expansion through IFT Food Expo 2012

Domestic stevia sweetener market may develop slowly in future

Chinese cyclamate enjoys good development abroad

National policies have great influence on sweetener enterprises

Opportunities and challenges coexist in Chinese maltose syrup industry

Guangdong L&P's sucralose expansion project enters construction bidding phase

Shandong Huayi puts crystalline glucose production lines into production

Anhui Jinhe's new acesulfame-K project seems unpromising

Profit of Baolingbao grows in H1 2012

Layn's operating profit loss reaches about USD3.2 million in H1 2012

China's corn starch performs poorly in H1 2012

Ex-factory prices of Chinese sweeteners in July 2012

Domestic price of aspartame suffers decrease in H1 2012

Domestic prices of three key sugar alcohols will increase in H2 2012

Export overview of some sweeteners and raw materials in China, June 2012

Export volume of sucralose rises 180% in Jan.-May 2012

If you are interested in CCM International’s August issue of Sweeteners China News, please do not hesitate to contact us by +86-20-37616606, or email us at econtact@cnchemicals.com.

Sweeteners China News is a monthly newsletter published by CCM International Limited. Based on China market, CCM offers timely update and close follow up of China’s various kind of sweeteners market dynamics, analyze the market data and trends, Major columns include market dynamic, company dynamic, raw material supply, price update, import & export analysis, Consumption Trend & Competitiveness.

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