Three Problems Solved in Food Processing and Packaging Machinery Industry

In recent years, the rapid development of the food industry has led to progress in the food processing and packaging machinery industry. According to industrial census data, there are nearly 6,000 food processing and packaging machinery companies in China, but most of them are small and medium enterprises. According to statistics from the China Food Processing and Packaging Machinery Industry Association, in July of this year, the major 1247 enterprises in the food processing and packaging machinery industry in China achieved an industrial output value of 46.96 billion yuan, of which the new product output value was 27.91 billion yuan, an increase of 33.06% over the same period of last year; The industrial sales value was 45.4 billion yuan, an increase of 24.82% over the same period of last year. China Machinery Industry Federation predicts that from 2011 to 2015, the total output value of the food processing and packaging machinery industry is expected to exceed 600 billion yuan, and the average annual growth rate will remain at around 16%.

However, another set of statistical data from the China Machinery Industry Federation reflects the problems in the food processing and packaging machinery industry in China. In terms of operating efficiency, the profit rate of the entire machinery industry in the first half of the year increased by 86.13% year-on-year, of which, the food processing and packaging machinery industry was the lowest, only increasing to 26%.

What kind of development status is the Chinese food processing and packaging machinery industry in the end, and where is the bottleneck that limits the development of the industry? The development of the industry faces the following three major problems.

Follow-up investment is serious According to media reports, the average labor productivity of most enterprises in China's food processing and packaging machinery line is below 100,000 yuan, and the scale of the company is relatively small. Moreover, the status of the industry is extremely unstable. Nearly 15% of the companies are converted or closed every year, and another 15% of companies join the industry. In addition, there is still a low level of repetitive production problems in the industry. About a quarter of the companies in the industry currently ignore the industry's development requirements and repeatedly produce mechanical products that are low in cost, backward in technology, and easy to manufacture. This is a great waste of resources and hinders the development of the industry. In the interview, these issues were confirmed.

Referring to the problems existing in the industry, Chen Aibin, sales manager of Jiangsu Jinrong Machinery Co., Ltd., confessed what he saw and heard: “In this industry, SMEs do account for the majority. Every day they close down, but at the same time there are People follow-up capital injections. In our local area, doing business has a tendency to follow suit. Investors, regardless of whether they can make money or how to make money, see a company that is engaged in the production of food processing and packaging machinery fire. Others are rushing to imitate, Investing in this industry has resulted in serious repetitive production. Many business owners blindly make investments, and most of them have failed due to poor management. It is not easy to survive.

Price competition is fierce. Most SMEs in China's food processing and packaging machinery industry rely on prices to win. The overall starting point of the industry was originally low, and there were a number of companies in a region that were producing, with repeatability and low profits. In addition, some business owners in the industry have found that a customer has flocked to the market, causing many people to compete for customers and "kill each other." Competition is fierce. Everyone is desperate to bargain, resulting in those customers who have absolute choice and negotiating bargaining power in the negotiations. They can choose mechanical products with relatively low prices and relatively good quality. However, those SMEs who waited for orders did not receive profits from their customers, and did not have the funds to expand their scale and invest in technological R&D. They still had no advantage in negotiating with foreign customers, and they could only resort to price wars once again, resulting in vicious competition.

Such vicious competition has made the living conditions of struggling SMEs worse.

Lack of technological innovation Many SMEs are reluctant to introduce advanced technology from abroad, but they do not have the funds to carry out high-tech research and development. Foreign technologies have patents. We cannot afford many of our prices. We have to develop our own technologies and we lack the funds and technical personnel. The technical transformation is very difficult. This situation has led to the fact that most companies in the domestic food processing and packaging machinery industry can only say “no” in the face of advanced technologies that save labor costs.

In an interview with the media, He Nanzhi, executive vice president of the China Food and Packaging Machinery Industry Association, pointed out that the well-known food processing and packaging machinery factories in developed countries have a large demand for products. They can significantly increase production efficiency by applying some new technologies. The cost of introducing technology is greatly reduced. The domestic domestic food factories are mostly based on small and medium-sized enterprises. Although the introduction of technology will increase efficiency, due to the small size of the company, limited funds and customers, the advantages of improving efficiency cannot offset the cost of technology introduction. Domestic food processing and packaging machinery factories will only choose to use automation technology to upgrade their equipment if they are forced to do so. Therefore, China's processing and packaging industry should proceed from reality. While introducing technology, independent innovation is also essential, so that equipment suitable for the needs of the domestic market can be produced.

Talking about the future of China's food packaging machinery industry, Li Miaomiao of the Export Department of Anhui Zhengyuan Packaging Technology Co., Ltd. said: “In the future, China's food processing and packaging machinery industry will definitely be aligned with foreign large-scale enterprises. The impact of labor costs, but China's food processing, packaging machinery industry started late, technology, capital is limited, it needs at least a dozen years to do bigger and stronger."