Domestic Producers Aim at EU Market of Stevia Sweeteners

On 7 September 2011, PureCircle Limited (PureCircle), the world's leading producer and marketer of high purity stevia products, announces that it steps up expansion in stevia sweetener market in the EU. Meanwhile, some domestic stevia sweetener producers also expressed their aims. All these above is because EU market of stevia sweeteners may be opened by the end of this year when the EU approves stevia and stevia glycosides (EU approval), according to CCM’s latest issue of Sweeteners China News.

PureCircle established a new European headquarter in London and signed a UK distribution agreement with Prinova Group LLC. (Prinova Europe), a global food ingredient supplier. According to Jordi Ferre, President of PureCircle's Commercial Division, the company  is now going to take the important step by establishing new PureCircle business entity in the UK, which will enable it to partner with customers across EU.

PureCircle and domestic stevia sweetener producers plan to expand their EU business thanks to the approval. At present, stevia and steviol glycosides, two major stevia sweeteners, are not permitted for sale as food or food ingredients in the UK and most other EU countries. But by the end of this year, the use of stevia sweetener will be approved in the EU, attracting related producers' penetration into the market.

In order to get viewpoints of domestic stevia sweetener producers, CCM International investigates six major stevia sweetener producers in China, four of which are big companies, including GLG Life Tech Corporation (GLG), PureCircle (Jiangxi) Co.,Ltd (Jiangxi Purecircle), Shandong Huaxian Stevia Co., Ltd. (Shandong Huaxian) and Qufu Haigen Stevia Products Co., Ltd. (Qufu Haigen). The left two are small-size and medium-size companies, including Jining Aoxing Stevia Products Co., Ltd. (Jining Aoxing) and Heilongjiang Land Reclamation Huiju Hailin Stevioside Co., Ltd. (Heilongjiang Hailin).

According to CCM International's survey, lots of manufacturers are impressively attracted by huge market potential of stevia sweeteners in the EU. All of the six internal producers CCM International interviewed anticipated a prosperous future growth of stevia sweeteners in the EU market.

Moreover, stevia sweetener market in the EU may enjoy fast growth, especially those high purity ones. Take France as a good example, with temporary approval for high purity stevia sweeteners from the EU, it saw speedy development of stevia awareness and market adoption in low calorie sweetener category. A similar situation is likely to occur across all EU countries this time, remarkably boosting domestic stevia sweetener industry. This predication is well agreed by all six stevia sweetener producers CCM International investigated. Besides, they added that currently high purity sweeteners, such as RA80, RA95 and RA97, are popularly received in non-EU markets. And this trend will probably happen in EU market too.

At present, the six domestic producers are waiting for the opening of the stevia sweetener market in the EU, and they choose different ways to enter the EU market. Among them, Jining Aoxing and Jiangxi Purecirlce will enter directly on their own, while the other four would like to cooperate with overseas distributors and traders. Whichever way they choose, since the attraction is so appealing,  domestic producers will spare no effort to export as much stevia sweeteners as possible to the EU. However, on the other side, since the attraction is so appealing, abundant of producers will fight to seize a market share, leading to intense competition among them.

Additionally, EU approval may greatly benefit domestic stevia sweetener industry. According to CCM International's survey, stevia sweeteners are export-oriented products in China, whose estimated export volume accounts for about 60%-70% of total output of stevia sweeteners, Some companies export even more, such as Shandong Huaxian and Qufu Haigen, whose present export volumes take up 80% of their total output. Hence, EU approval is going to accelerate domestic players' export business.

Source: Sweeteners China News 1109

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

Content of Sweeteners China News 1109:

The ninth batch of national sugar reserves launched to market

Annual conference of sucrose 2011 held in Yunnan

Sucrose production to increase in the next sucrose extraction season

Shandong Zhucheng plans to construct production lines

Funing City plans to build a modern national sucrose base

Shandong Longlive owns seven production patents

F55 may be the trend of HFCS in future

Domestic producers aim at EU market of stevia sweeteners

Domestic price of crystalline glucose rebounds a little in Sept. 2011

Cyclamate's export volume decreases in the first eight months of this year

Suzhou Xiankuo targets at XOS

QHT targets at end market by controlling a food company

Xiwang Sugar strengthens sales of retailing crystalline fructose through new ways

Global Sweeteners acquires a corn refinery from its parent company

Price of glycyrrhizin increases

China's planting area of fructus momordicase increasing

Ex-factory prices of China's sweeteners in September 2011

Import & export analysis of Chinese fructose and fructose syrup (fructose content≥50%) in Jan. -Aug. 2011

Import & export analysis of Chinese mannitol in Jan.-Aug. 2011

China's maltitol and xylitol price still increasing

Shanghai Mixed Food Additives Professional Committee established in September……

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

(Guangzhou China, October 9, 2011)

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.

Please visit http://www.cnchemicals.com for more information or contact econtact@cnchemicals.com

GLG Built Stevia Breeding and Cultivation Centre in Anhui

GLG Life Tech Corporation (GLG), a world leader in the production of high-quality stevia, built a breeding and cultivation centre of stevia jointly with Anhui Science and Technology University in Anhui in June 2011. This centre is a unique provincial engineering research centre which is focused on breeding, cultivation and the breed improvement of stevia, according to CCM’s Sweeterner China News.

In light of the following two reasons, GLG believes that the stevia planting will develop well and the demand for stevia may keep increasing in the next several years, thus it has finally built this breeding and cultivation centre in Anhui.

First, the export volume of stevia sweetener has increased thanks to the growing overseas demand for it in recent years. Currently, China has already become the largest stevia sweetener supplier in the world, and around 80% of its total output of stevia sweetener is sold to overseas market. It reveals that the output of stevia is also increasing as stevia is the raw material of stevia sweetener.

Moreover, the consumption volume of stevia sweetener in China has also gradually increased for the development of sugar-free foods and beverages in recent years.

GLG builds the breeding and cultivation centre of stevia for the following two goals.

First, the centre will improve the breeding to get new stevia species which have higher steviol glycosides content in the leaves. And the major components in steviol glycosides are stevioside and rebaudioside A (RA). Those new species can help stevia sweetener processors produce high RA purity products. Moreover, the prices of high RA purity products such as RA 80%, RA 90% and RA 95% are much higher than that of stevioside, that is to say, the new species can bring GLG with high profits.

Second, the output of stevia will increase with the improving stevia planting level through education and training. What's more, the centre will help farmers learn new culture technique of stevia and prevent plant diseases and insect damage.

It is estimated that the planting industry of stevia will develop sustainably, then the output of stevia will also increase to ensure the supply. In fact, stevia is planted by native farmers and then sold as a raw material to the domestic stevia sweetener producers. On one hand, the increasing demand from stevia sweetener drives the producers to buy more stevia from farmers.

On the other hand, local governments also try their best to promote the planting industry of stevia, because it can increase the income of farmers. For example, Government of Anhui Mingguang held a purchasing meeting of stevia on 4 May 2010 which aims to help farmers sell their stevia at a reasonable price and also help stevia sweetener producers buy high quality stevia in the harvest season. That is to say, both the sweetener producers and the government are promoting the planting industry of stevia.

For more information about Sweeterner China News, please feel free to contact us at econtact@cnchemicals.com

 (Guangzhou China, September 27, 2011)

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