THE food safety and quality testing instrument market will see "explosive growth" in the next few years following China's cancellation of national inspection exemptions after the tainted milk powder scandal, industry insiders said yesterday.
The related analysis and testing instrument imports and exports will hit US$3.5 billion in 2010, compared with US$1.6 billion in 2005, according to Ma Xiguan, of the China Association for Instrument Analysis.
"It's a conservative expectation and awareness of food safety has fueled demand for the instruments," said Ma.
China announced last week the cancellation of all inspection exemptions, which were granted in 2000 to help companies avoid repeated examinations and reduce costs in the food industry.
The move was to "enhance supervision over food producers, ensuring food safety and protecting consumers' interests," according to the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
New technology
The policy will boost the demand for gas chromatography and liquid chromatography devices, which are often used in the food safety testing, experts said.
Instrument producers, including Agilent, Thermo and Shimadzu, will benefit from the growth in demand in the domestic market. The firms are among those attending the China 2008 trade fair which opens today in Shanghai.
United States-based Agilent, a former analysis and testing subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard, launched new technologies and products for food safety testing yesterday.
Based on Agilent's products, regulators or companies can screen food products for prohibited compounds, identify unknown compounds and determine the amount of each substance encountered.
In China, Agilent is to launch several kinds of devices for various clients from small and medium-sized enterprises to government regulators.
Mu Yiping, Agilent China's country operation manager, said: "China is always the major revenue engine for us and the milk powder scandal will greatly boost the market demand here."
For the fiscal year 2007 ended on October 31, Agilent's revenue was US$5.4 billion. Its 2008 revenue is expected to grow 15 percent.