Ketchup is an important ingredient in the food and food industry in the world. It is a necessity for people's daily diet in many countries and regions. Tomato products on the market mainly include large-package raw material sauce for reprocessing of processors and small-package ketchup, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, etc. for end consumers. Ketchup products are roughly divided into three levels: the first grade is a large package of ketchup; the second is a small package of canned tomato sauce; the higher level is a tomato sauce. The core of the primary product is the control of resources and production costs, with obvious resource attributes; small packaged ketchup and tomato sauce are typical fast-moving consumer goods, highly dependent on production processes, taste formulas, sales networks and brands. The added value of the product is also increased step by step.
Due to the large-scale planting requirements for tomato processing for tomato ketchup, there are three areas for planting and processing tomatoes in large areas: the California Valley in the United States, the Mediterranean coast and Xinjiang in China, and a small number of regions in Inner Mongolia. The processing capacity of tomatoes in the three major producing areas accounts for about 85% of the total processing volume in the world.
The characteristics of the tomato processing industry are generally five years and one cycle, which is characterized by the “two reductions and three increases” in production. The industry presents a “U” trend.
In the past 10 years, the consumption of processed tomato products (ketchup) has grown at an average annual rate of 3%. Developed countries such as Europe and the United States are traditional consumer countries and have maintained steady growth. In emerging markets such as Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and China and India, the demand for tomato products has shown a rapid growth trend with the deepening of tomato nutrition and the gradual westernization of eating habits.