The beverage market starts to prosper as the weather warms up. Due to the increased health and nutrition concerns of consumers, tea drink, soda water and fruit/vegetable beverages made from apple, lemon, etc. as the materials have come to sell well. Although the financial crisis is still spreading globally in 2009, the Chinese beverage industry has not only been less affected by it but also begun to show an against-the-trend prosperity because of the higher anti-risk ability of the food/beverage industry, the abundance of raw materials in China and the lower saturation of the market. It’s believed to have a brighter future.  

The Chinese beverage industry started later compared with the advanced countries. But, it has been progressing so fast in recent years with the development of the country. Statistics have shown that there’re about 6,000 beverage enterprises in China, among which over 1,000 are of a certain scale, featured by more than 200 thousand employees, annual sales revenues of over 60 billion yuan and annual profits and taxes of more than 6 billion yuan. The total beverage volume has been increasing stably from less than 0.3 million tons in 1980 and 3.3 million tons in 1990 to 14.90 million tons in 2000, indicating an over 50-fold increase in a 20-year period and an average annual growth of 21.8%. The total beverage volume hit 16.70 million tons in 2001, 11.94% more than that of 2000, maintaining a double-digit growth rate and making the beverage industry the fastest developing one. These statistics also imply that, with the development of the beverage market, beverage machinery will have a bright future.

The development of the Chinese beverage industry is characterized by the sharp growth of total volume and the rapid increase in categories. With a view of satisfying the demands of beverage manufacturers of all scales, beverage machinery companies have made efforts to give beverage processing equipment suitable for use. Beverage processing machinery is divided into the categories of pre-treatment, post-treatment, packaging and casing/palletizing machines, including cleaning machine, grading/screening machine, crushing machine, beating machine, juicing machine, separating machine, homogenizing machine, filtering machine, concentrating machine, heat exchanger, water treatment machine, mixer, dehumidifier, sterilizer, filling machine, casing/palletizing machine, and cold drink system, etc.  

Due to lack of money, small- and medium-scale companies generally use small beverage processing lines, which can effectively reduce the cost of investment and help to boost the development of the beverage industry. With moderate costs and complying with the consumption tide, small beverage processing lines, highly appreciated by small- and medium-scale companies, will have bright market prospects.

On the other hand, large-scale beverage processing companies, featured by high speed and output, have relatively higher requirements for beverage machinery. Firstly, in the aspect of multiple functions, several beverage categories (tea drink, coffee drink, soybean milk, juice drink, etc.) can be hot-filled into glass or PET bottles with one machine. Secondly, these machines have high content of technology and reliability, and high automation level and efficiency of the whole lines. Equipped with online detecting and metering devices, they can fulfill the automatic detection of various parameters and accurate metering. New high-tech products have continued to emerge, integrating mechanical, electronic, pneumatic, optical and magnetic technologies. Thirdly, they have high capacity and high speed. As to carbonated drinks, high-speed fillers, with 165, 144 or 178 filling valves, can fulfill a maximum of 2,000 fills per minute. And as to non-carbonated drinks, fillers with 50 - 100 filling valves can also work at the maximal speed of 1,500 fills per minute. Therefore, beverage machinery manufacturers will get more clients as they strive to develop and grow in the competition, make more technological innovations, and strengthen the consciousness of quality and brand.