KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 — 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 7,655 tonnes 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 per cent.
China imports margarine from Indonesia, with 650 tonnes coming from Malaysia in 2021, an increase of 10 per cent from 590 tonnes in 2020.
The market size of China’s bakery market has risen to 265.7 billion yuan (RM172.53 billion) from 187.7 billion yuan (RM121.88 billion), with an average compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about nine per cent 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 287.4 billion yuan (RM186.62 billion) in 2022.
Last year also saw investment in China’s bakery industry topping 26 other industries with a total amount of 6.14 billion yuan (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, the 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.
