KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia should further expand its market share in China’s bakery fats market, said Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC) Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin.
She said China has resorted to importing the main raw material from Indonesia and Malaysia, whose export of shortening to China stood at 7,655T in 2021, as its annual production is far from meeting growing domestic consumption demands.
Hence, the minister has urged home-grown shortening and margarine manufacturers to forge tie-ups with reputable bakery enterprises in the world’s second-largest economy.
“Even though Malaysia’s ‘cake’ in China’s bakery industry is small at this moment, the world’s second-largest palm oil producer is capable of expanding its market share in China’s bakery ingredient market with the right promotion and marketing strategies,” she said in a statement today.
MPIC said China’s margarine market is also growing rapidly with an annual growth rate of 20%.
China imports margarine from Indonesia, with 650T coming from Malaysia in 2021, an increase of 10% from 590T in 2020.
The market size of China’s bakery market has risen to RM172.53 billion from RM121.88 billion, with an average compounded annual growth rate of about 9% from 2017 to 2021.
This is much higher than the growth rate of the global baking industry’s market size, added the statement.
Zuraida said it is expected that the market size of China’s baked food industry will reach RM186.62 billion in 2022.
Last year also saw investment in China’s bakery industry topping 26 other industries with a total amount of RM3.98 billion, which is attributable to the post-Covid-19 recovery in economic activities.
Zuraida said this encouraging outlook of China’s baking industry, with baking fats being one of the key raw materials, augurs well for the downstream segments of Malaysia’s palm oil sector.
“To complement palm oil downstream players who are interested in solidifying their overseas business presence, MPIC has embarked on The Global Movement to Champion the Goodness of Palm Oil campaign.
“This platform is intended to spark awareness about the high quality of Malaysian palm oil as well as to counter the various misinformation and false information levelled at our golden oil,” she said. – Bernama, September 21, 2022
