Severe market environment of food colorant industry in China

At the annual meeting of colorant Committee of China food additive production and Application Industry Association held recently, Qi Qingzhong, Secretary General of China food additive production and Application Industry Association, expressed his opinions on the current market environment faced by the food colorant industry Qi said that since last summer, the development of domestic food colorant industry has encountered great difficulties Due to the rapid growth of the industry in recent years, potential problems such as excessive production capacity have been exposed in the changing market environment, especially lutein The scale of production capacity has come up in one step, and the situation of supply exceeding demand has emerged in the market, which naturally affects the product price Other varieties such as gardenia yellow and capsicum red all have this problem, but the performance is different As for the above situation, Qi Qingzhong stressed that on the one hand, we should declare the actual situation of the relevant varieties of food colorants to the relevant departments of the state, and hope to adjust the policies appropriately On the other hand, we should give more play to the initiative of the industry, such as reducing costs, promoting technological progress, improving product quality, increasing product added value and product competitiveness At the same time, in order to form a reasonable industrial structure in the industry, especially when the state cancels the export tax rebate of some products, it is necessary to strengthen the coordination among enterprises, so as to get out of the trough and obtain long-term development UnionPay analysis: 1 The development of China's food colorant industry 1 Industry definition and main product classification food colorant, also known as food pigment, is a food additive to make food colorant, so as to improve the color and hue of food According to different sources, it can be divided into two categories: edible synthetic pigment and edible natural pigment Edible synthetic pigment mainly refers to the organic pigment produced by the synthetic method of artificial chemistry At present, almost all the synthetic pigments allowed to be used in the world are water-soluble pigments There are 22 kinds of food synthetic pigments licensed in China, including amaranth, carmine, red moss, new red, tempting red, lemon yellow, sunset yellow, bright blue, indigo and their respective aluminum lakes, as well as 22 kinds of acid red, β - carotene, sodium copper chlorophyllin and titanium dioxide Edible natural pigments come from natural materials, and most of them are edible resources They are organic colorants obtained by certain processing methods There are 66 kinds of edible natural pigments approved for use in China They are mainly extracted from plant tissues, including some pigments from animals and microorganisms, but their pigment content and stability are generally inferior to synthetic products 2 After more than 20 years of development, the production, sales and application of food colorants in China have reached a certain level and scale According to the rough statistics, the output of China's edible colorants is about 28000 tons, of which the annual output of chemical synthetic colorants is about 3000 tons, and the annual output of natural pigments is about 25000 tons; China's Monascus red, functional Monascus, capsicum red, caramel color, gardenia yellow, lutein, etc have entered the international market On the one hand, the number of food colorants in China has increased greatly According to statistics, before 1981, China had not formed a formal food colorant industry There were only 14 kinds of food colorants approved by the government By 2004, 61 kinds of edible colorants were approved to be used in GB2760-1996 (including supplementary varieties) The number of edible natural colorants in 2004 was 67 times of that in 1981 On the other hand, the output value of colorants in China has a huge growth This year, the annual output value of edible synthetic colorants is expected to reach 190 million yuan, and the output value of edible natural colorants is expected to be about 1.1 billion yuan The production of edible natural colorants in China mainly focuses on caramel color, with an annual output of about 255000 tons and an annual sales volume of about 650 million yuan, followed by red koji rice, with an annual output of about 7000 tons and an annual sales volume of about 70 million yuan However, although China's food colorant has entered the ranks of the world's largest countries in terms of variety quantity, output and output value, there are still many problems to be solved, such as the lag of product standards, the lack of comprehensive competitiveness of enterprises, etc., and the colorant industry still has a long way to go to achieve a qualitative leap 2 Problems faced by the food colorant industry in China 1 The planning of industry development needs to be strengthened The domestic food colorant industry is blindly on the horse, and the phenomenon of rushing up is relatively serious Enterprises only focus on local benefits, lack of comprehensive planning and layout considerations, and the government departments lack of effective macro-control of the industry, resulting in production far greater than demand In order to participate in the competition, enterprises fall into a fierce price war, sometimes even the selling price is lower than the cost price In the aspect of export, the export enterprises press each other's prices to make the handle for the import countries' anti-dumping, which has a very adverse impact on the development of the industry 2 The technical level of the industry needs to be improved China's food colorant enterprises are still dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, with relatively weak technical force and management level, and many of them are low-level and repetitive production enterprises, with low overall productivity level and unstable product quality At the same time, the technology investment of these enterprises is relatively limited, so it is difficult to make a breakthrough in the development of new products In terms of production process, high and new technologies such as supercritical extraction, microencapsulation and membrane separation have just started in China The current production process is backward, resulting in high product cost and poor quality 3 Application technology and service need to be complete Because there are many kinds of colorants involved in food processing, the application research and product service of colorants become the key to the success of additive products However, most domestic enterprises only have production knowledge and do not have sufficient application knowledge, so it is very difficult to promote products Although some enterprises have established application and research and development institutions, their technical strength is weak, and they often face frequent flow of people due to poor management, resulting in the loss of technology, capital, talents and market 3 China's food colorant industry has a bright future 1 The rapid growth of the total amount of industrial food in China will promote the development of food colorants simultaneously Reform and opening up and improvement of living standards have brought great development to China's food industry, especially in the past decade, the annual growth rate of China's food industry is 10.4% With the development of China's national economy and the diversification of residents' consumption, the level and structure of food consumption will also change greatly, so the food colorant industry, which complements industrial food, will also develop synchronously In addition, the competitiveness of China's export products continues to strengthen, and they have been recognized by more and more countries in terms of export products Both domestic and international markets provide a huge development space for China's food colorants 2 International multinational companies have generally been optimistic about China's food and colorant market, and have actively introduced funds to invest and build factories in China The introduction of foreign capital not only solves the capital problem for the development of the industry, but also introduces advanced production technology and new varieties of food colorant, improves the management level of the industry, and increases the aftereffect for the further development of the industry 4 Credit risk hint 1 Natural, nutritious and multi-functional food colorants with high technology content will be developed greatly Nowadays, consumers pursue health, nature, safety and nutrition The popularity of green food, organic food and natural food shows that health and nature have become the leading direction of food colorant development More and more natural colorants have become an inevitable trend to replace chemical synthetic colorants China has rich natural resources, which has a strong influence on the production of natural colorants There is great potential 2 Food colorants with backward technology and toxicity will be phased out With the further attention of the state to food safety and the further implementation of policies such as "Hygienic Standards for the use of food additives", enterprises with backward technology and small scale will find it difficult to seek development space and will be gradually eliminated by the market