China's Packaging Machinery Market Research Report - PMMI

end-users choose to produce similar parts by themselves.
14.2 The Food Industry
An overview of China’s food industry
In the two decades since reforms and opening their markets to the outside world,
China’s food industry has been continuously growing at an annual rate as high as
10%-20%, thus the pillar sector in consumer industry. As shown by the State
Statistical Bureau, a total value of output of RMB 800 million has been achieved by
all the food enterprises in 1999, accounting for 10.3% of national total in the field of
industry. With the focus of consumers shifting from quantity to quality, people have
begun to pay attention to the balance of nutrition. A wider variety of foods have
become more available as urban and rural citizens both earn higher wages.
Promises of China’s food industry
(1) The food structure is undergoing further improvement, with increased quality
and variety. The concepts of nutrition and convenience are becoming more and
more prominent as citizens are better paid and the pace of life speeds up. As a
result, the socialization of household food consumption is accelerated, the
market for frozen food expands, and diary product is one of the most promising
industries in the few years to come. Currently, the annual consumption of diary
food per capita is just 6.6 kg, the near future, however, may witness an increase
to 20-30 kg.
(2) A general trend is to equip the food processing industry with new, high
technology equipment. To cater to people’s demand, modern food processing is
advancing toward the trend of providing safer, more nutritious, faster, more
convenient, and varied foods. In this case, the traditional processing methods
and technology can no longer satisfy the needs of the modern food industry.
(3) The development of health food.
The recent decades have seen a profound change in the eating habits of China.
China has solved the problem of feeding their large population, and most of the
people afford a fairly comfortable life now. They are beginning to pay more
attention to health instead of just getting food to eat, hence the line of health
food.
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