Rapid growth for food industry expected

China's food industry is expected to maintain rapid growth over the next five to ten years, Xiong Bilin, deputy director of the China Food Industry Association, said.

Xiong attributed the growth to the country's deepening urbanization and the industry's opportunities of further tapping into the food-processing sector.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, total output of the country's food industry in 2012 jumped by 21.7 percent over the year to 9 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion). The added value of leading companies in the food industry surged by 12 percent during the same period, 2 percentage points higher than the average figure for the industrial sector generally, official data showed.