Global starch market driven by tremendous activity in Asia

Consumption within the global starch market has been forecast to reach 133.5 million metric tons by the year 2018, driven primarily by the diversity and sheer number of end-use applications in both food and non-food industries.

The economic recovery, the rise in per capita consumption, and the growing demand for starch products from developing nations translates into a bright outlook for the Starch market.

Starch is the most common carbohydrate in the human diet and is contained in many staple foods. The major sources of starch intake worldwide are the cereals (rice, wheat, and maize) and the root vegetables (potatoes and cassava).

The starch industry extracts and refines starches from seeds, roots and tubers, by wet grinding, washing, sieving and drying. Today, the main commercial refined starches are cornstarch, tapioca, wheat and potato starch.

To a lesser extent, sources include rice, sweet potato, sago and mung bean. Historically, Florida arrowoot was also commercialised. To this day, starch is extracted from more than 50 types of plants.

The food industry ranks as the largest end-use sector, with sweetener applications representing the largest sub-segment worldwide. Having gained a strong foothold in the food industry, starch has now become an integral component for several day-to-day products such as medicines, cosmetics, toothpaste, building material, polish, and paper among others.

The United States is the largest supplier of starch in the world, followed by China, which has been displaying tremendous activity in recent years. Although developed markets such as the US and Europe have been traditionally the largest consumers of starch worldwide, the recent growth in the global starch market has been particularly driven by developing markets in Asia-Pacific.

For more information on the global starch market, see the latest research: Global Starch Market

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