China’s expanding high pressure processing equipment market is a roadblock to the growth of the North America and Europe high pressure processing equipment market

High pressure processing technology was introduced for commercial applications in the 1990s. Over the past 10 years, adoption of high pressure processing equipment or systems has witnessed significant growth in the food and beverages industry. In the last decade, growth in the installed base of high pressure processing equipment across the globe has registered a CAGR of around 17%.

In terms of value, the global high pressure processing equipment market was pegged at more than US$ 120 Mn in 2016 and is projected to reach above US$ 430 Mn by the end of 2026. North America followed by Europe is the largest market for high pressure processing equipment, collectively accounting for more than 60% share in terms of value in 2015.

The region is expected to witness relatively faster growth over the forecast period. Rising health concerns and awareness among customers has resulted in significant increase in the demand for organic food and clean label food products, i.e. those food products that are free from added preservatives or chemicals, artificial colours, and artificial flavours.

Awareness of the health benefits associated with consumption of clean label products has witnessed a marked increase. Accordingly, launch of new clean label products is expected to gain strong momentum over the forecast period. Several leading industry participants have made significant investments towards the launch of such product offerings in order to penetrate the growing market for such products.

Over the years, high pressure processing equipment manufacturers have increased their product variants in terms of capacity either by increasing vessel size or by increasing the number of intensifiers.