China Tomato Processing Industry Report, 2007

In pursuit of health and convenience nowadays, people pay more attention to the health concept for tomatoes, which are not only delicious and nutritious but also of high pharmaceutical value, and the industry chain will also extend from the upstream initial processing to downstream high value-added industry.

At present, the tomato planting area is comparatively fixed throughout the world; however, due to the climate and policies, foreign tomato production capacity does not have an optimistic growth trend. On the contrary, by virtue of the advantaged natural condition, China's tomato output and its proportion to the world's total have been increasing rapidly year by year. It's safe to say that China has become the largest exporter of bulk packed tomato paste.

Considering from the market demand, the Euro-America market will experience a comparatively steady growth, whereas the newly-rising markets such as Asia, Africa and Russia will witness a sharp rise in consumption. China, as a newly-emerging ketchup consumption market, along with the popularization of foreign snack and Western-style food, the consumption will also be remarkably increased.

The unbalanced supply and demand has brought about development opportunities to China's tomato processing industry. With high-quality raw materials and cost advantage, price hike caused by unbalanced supply and demand will benefit China to a large extent; meanwhile, the extension of the industry chain will also enable China's tomato processing enterprises to gain higher added value.