Due to the growing price hike of tomato sauce in 2008, the tomato planting area worldwide has largely increased. In 2009, the output of tomatoes for processing in the world has increased by 15.6% year-on-year to 42.317 million tons. In particular, China experienced the largest growth in output of tomatoes for processing. The output of tomatoes for processing in China reached 8.65 million tons in 2009, up 35.1% from a year earlier, increasing the proportion to 20.5% in the global total tomato output for processing; while China’s output of tomato products approximated 1.1 million tons.
The global consumption of tomato products maintains stable growth, and it reached 38.5 million tons in 2009, a slightly increase of 2.4% from a year earlier. The oversupply of tomato for processing in the world caused the price slump of tomato products in 2009, resulting in the fluctuation of global market in the industry. China, as the leading exporter of raw material of tomato products, was inflicted even worse.
This report not only highlights the status quo, market demand and supply, competition pattern, import and export, price trend and prospects of China’s tomato products industry, but studies the operations and advantages of leading enterprises in this regard worldwide.
COFCO Tunhe, a case in point, began to take great efforts to develop the planting industry and try to realize whole industry chain manufacturing in 2009. With the tomato plantation area of 185,000 mu (or about 12333 hectares) in 2009, the company purchased more than 100 sets of harvesters and other supporting farm machinery, in a bid to build up the highly efficient mechanized hi-tech tomato planting base. The tomato output of COFCO Tunhe in 2009 was 760,000 tons, taking 22% of the total purchasing volume of the company. In 2009, COFCO Tunhe achieved the operating revenue of RMB2.8795 billion, down 16.06% from a year earlier; net profit reached RMB267.7 million, down 13.9% over 2008. Due to its cost advantage and large-scale operation strength of tomato raw materials, the operating profit margin of tomato products of the company was as high as 43.1%, placing the forefront among domestic counterparts in the industry. However, the sluggish demand of its prime products including tomato products and sugar resulted in the low price in the market. Accordingly, the operating revenue and net profit of the company dropped by 25% and 38.5% quarter-on-quarter to RMB629 million and RMB38.4 million respectively in the first quarter of 2010.
In 2009, the company’s sales volume of tomato products increased to some extent, but its revenue in this regard reduced by 27.5% year-on-year to RMB1.4366 billion due to the price slump of tomato products. In turn, the contribution rate of tomato products to revenue from prime business of the company declined to 49.9%, a decrease of 9.1 percentage points year- on- year. Meanwhile, the financial crisis and the proliferating output of tomatoes worldwide exerted a negative impact on the export of COFCO Tunhe in 2009. The revenue proportion from overseas contributed to 53.8% of the company’s revenue from prime business, down 7.1 percentage points year-on-year.
COFCO Tunhe boasts its advantages in complete industrial chain of tomato products and large-scale production. It has 11 subsidiaries for production and sales of tomato products, 6 planting plants for tomato processing and 2 companies for conducting tomato seed study and providing technological service. Setting foot in the tomato sauce processing industry, the company also turns its eyes on upstream raw material planting and expands their business towards downstream deep-processing industry. With the increasing tomato output of China and the expansion of tomato product business, the comprehensive competitiveness of the company leads the global enterprises.