China’s
stevia sweetener market is growing rapidly. Manufacturers see their chances in
increasing domestic and global demand. However, the stevia sweeteners price in
China is dropping continuously, due to higher capacity and growing competition.
Market intelligence firm CCM believes, that the capacity will keep growing fast
in 2017, as more enterprises launch new production lines to satisfy the demand.
The
turnover for China’s stevia sweetener industry began in 2015 when the first
enterprises started using stevia sweeteners to differentiate from the
mainstream. Since then, the alternative sweetener industry in China has
developed fast. Nowadays, China accounts for the largest stevia producer
worldwide, according to Zenith International.
Some
of the pioneers in using stevia as sweeteners have been Tingyi (Cayman Islands) and Uni-president China. However, despite the efforts of China’s leading
beverage producers, the enterprises are still lacking behind in efficient product
and enterprise marketing. As a result, China’s manufacturers were meant to set
their focus on low-marketed products in few needs of investments and production
costs. This lets China’s producers function as a supplier for crude stevia
sweeteners instead of searching for higher margins and market values.
Hence,
the export volume of stevia extract was the largest export in terms of plant
extracts in 2015 and 2016. The main export destinations have been the USA and
Malaysia, while the USA accounted for more than one-third of total exports. Other
notable export destinations have been Korea, Japan, and Mexico.
In
fact, the global demand for alternative sweeteners like stevia is growing
rapidly with the Asia-Pacific market is becoming the largest consumer for
those, accounting for more than half of the total demand.
China’s
manufacturers are currently increasing investments in stevia sweeteners to
please the growing demand in the country and worldwide. According to market
intelligence firm CCM, a company, which is launching a new production line, for
example, is Dongtai Nashengte. The subsidiary of Zhucheng Haotian plans
an annual production line for 30,000 tonnes a year capacity.
Despite
the ex-works price of stevia sweeteners is falling constantly since 2015, the
production is getting more attractive due to sufficient stevia supply and high
demand internationally. On January 2015, the price for one tonne of stevia
sweetener (RA95) was more than USD122,000. The bottom of the continuous drop
was reached in July 2016 with a value of almost USD73,000. According to CCM’s
price monitoring, the price in February 2017 was able to recover slightly from
January up to a value of USD77,309 per tonne.
However,
there are also incidents that add a not-so-sweet taste for China’s stevia
industry. In 2016, the USA has banned imports of Chinese sweeteners in accusing
of involving forced labour in the production. Especially a company from China’s
province Inner Mongolia was stated to produce stevia sweeteners by using forced
labour.
CCM
is of the opinion, that the stevia sweetener production capacity will expand
notably in 2017, as manufacturers see their chances in this growing market. Big
clients like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Starbucks are focusing more on natural
sweeteners like stevia, which elevates demand for Chinese producers.
About CCM
CCM
is the leading market intelligence provider for China’s agriculture, chemicals,
food & ingredients and life science markets.
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