By Tony Hu，Editor of Herbridge Media
 

Product Name		Origin	Features
Sucrose	The 1st generation pure natural sweetener.	Sugarcane, sugarbeet	Pure and natural, but high in calories, diabetes can’t eat it.
Hangar	The 2nd generation pure natural low-calorie sweetener.	Monk Fruit	Pure natural and very low in calories, not to be absorbed, diabetes can eat it.

 
As per the analysis of Huachengbio’s scientific research team, if it's converted into the same sweetness of sucrose, the Monk Fruit cost is 1.7-2.2 times of that of sucrose, and it’s expected that the Monk Fruit use-cost will be equivalent with that of sucrose till 2020.
In recent years, with the improvement of people's health consumption consciousness, the demand of safe, natural, and no-calorie sweeteners is growing, therefore to develop new type of natural sweetener has become one of the important topics nowadays, while Monk Fruit is one of the most development potential natural sweetener among them.
China is the country of origin for Monk Fruit, and the largest producer and exporter of Monk Fruit Extract (the main sweet component in Monk Fruit is Mogroside V), and among them, 90% is exported to USA and Japan. According to Herbridge，The global output of Monk Fruit Extract will be over 300 MT(converted into Mogroside V 50% for calculation) in 2017.
At present, the consumption areas of Monk Fruit Sweetener are mainly concentrated in USA, Japan and other regions. The USA is the largest consuming country of Monk Fruit Sweetener. Monk Fruit Sweetener is widely used in beverage, table sugar, dessert, baking food and other various food fields. Since 2008, Monk Fruit Series products passed US FDA GRAS certification, the US market grew rapidly. In 2014, the export volume was about USD 50 million,and in 2015 it reached USD 55 million, rising 10% year-on-year. In 2015, more than 180 kinds of products with Monk Fruit sweetener were launched in the US market. In 2016, the export volume is expected to reach USD 70 million.

Under the leading trend of sugar-free and sugar-reducing foods, as the representative product of natural sweeteners, Monk Fruit Sweetener is gradually favored by consumers in Japanese market. Desserts and condiments producers often used Monk Fruit Sweetener with Erythritol as the substitute for sucrose, and claimed that ‘sugar 0 grams’.  Since the beginning of 2016, relevant enterprises launched low sugar products, e.g. Senyong Dairy has launched a dessert "delicious low-sugar pudding", personal training hall Raizappu focused on sugar reduction, and under their supervision,’Conscientious Dessert’ Series have been launched.
As a Chinese traditional medicine and food dual purpose plant, Monk Fruit is very popular among Chinese. Monk Fruit Extract Mogroside V 20%, Chinese national standard GB1886.77 - 2016, released on Aug.31st,2016, and will be officially implemented on Jan. 1st 2017.  After the establishment and implementation of new laws and regulations, under the condition of guaranteed resources of Monk Fruit, the cost decreases year by year, and the haze of air and other environmental problems are still plaguing consumers, Monk Fruit Extract will usher in a new round of rapid growth.
In Europe, Australia and other countries, Monk Fruit has not been fully approved to be used as a sweetener and food additive. But with the concept of health natural sweetener and consumers’ demands for natural health, it’s believed that in the next few years, related laws and regulations in these countries and regions will recognized Monk Fruit, and its market is immeasurable.
Monk Fruit is only grown in China and is the fruit of cucurbitaceous plant Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle.). Its origin is Guilin of Guangxi in China and with the planting history for several hundred years.  Monk Fruit is strict to the growth environment, and must grow in a large temperature difference between day and night in humid environment, the most suitable temperature is 25~30℃, the relative humidity of the air is 70%~85%; is a short-day plant, it likes light but not resistant to strong light,not frost-resistant.
According to Herbride Media，The Monk Fruit market is smaller before 2009, its production and cultivation is limited to Guilin and a few surrounding areas in Guangxi. The limitation of people's traditional understanding makes consumers and many well-known terminal enterprises think Monk Fruit raw materials are too limited, and its sustainable supply capacity has been questioned, and the speed of its application and promotion is relatively behind, which has caused a big bottleneck to the development of Monk Fruit industry.
 
Huachengbio told Herbridge media they are thefirst enterprise who expanded Monk fruit planting areas to Hunan and Jiangxi besides Guilin. Since 2009,we have been committed to the promotion of Monk fruit planting outside from Guilin. So far, Huachengbio has planted Monk fruit successfully in large-scale cultivation in Yongzhou, Shaoyang, Huaihua, Hengyang, Yichun,etc.. Through the years of trials and large-scale cultivation research, the suitable areas of planting Monk fruit are more than 5 million mu for us (including the suitable planting areas in Guilin: about 300,000 mu. Through our efforts, the planting areas of Monk fruit in Hunan except that of Guilin are expanding rapidly.
 
In 2014, the planting area in Guilin is about 60,000mu, while in Hunan is about over 3,000mu, accounted for 5-6%;
In 2015, the planting area in Guilin is about 70,000mu,while in Hunan is about 12,000mu,accounted for 15-16%;
In 2016,the planting area expanded rapidly. Total planting area in China is about 120,000mu, the output of Monk Fruit is more than 100,000 MT, and the planting acreage proportion(except that of Guilin) of other areas are 20% more than that of the national, which is growing rapidly).
In 2017-2018, total planting area will be up to 180,000 mu if the market demand increases. The Monk Fruit output in Hunan will account for more than 50% of national total Monk Fruit output, and its market share will be increased to 80% year by year.

Another main important factor which influenced Monk Fruit Extract market is the cost except resource issue. Many companies are also trying to reduce the cost and improve the output and content of Monk Fruit by improving raw material planting. For example, 2 harvest seasons per year and new varieties selection to improve the content. The 3- year-planting data of Huachengbio shows that the content of Monk Fruit raw material has been increased to 0.45%. We’ll keep improving planting technology to increase the content of it.
According to Herbridge Media，In 2016, Starbucks announced they will provide a small sugar packets with Monk Fruit Extract which is natural,zero calorie sweetener as coffee sugar to more than 9000 stores in USA and Canada. It’s believed that the sales status and popularity of this kind of small sugar packets has attracted many global famous food and beverage companies concerns, will also drive world-renowned companies to collective accelerated participation.  In October 2016, Pepsi Cola announced the goal for the next decade is reducing sugar at 60%, which will undoubtedly drive Chinese domestic food and beverage giants facilitate the promotion of natural calorie-free sweetener, which also means a huge market for natural sweeteners has started. Our optimistic forecast is, after the resources and cost issues of Monk Fruit Extract (hangar) has been solved, and after the implementation of Monk Fruit Chinese national standard for around 2 years later, the domestic market will grow rapidly, even more than that of North America, becoming the largest market on Monk Fruit Sweetener.

Hunan Huacheng Biotech,Inc.(Stock Symbol: 834493,hereinafter called”Huachengbio”) was founded in 2008, headquartered in High-Tech Zone, Changsha of Hunan, is a national high-tech enterprise, one of top 10 premium suppliers of China Plant Extract Industry, one of the 5 rotate member enterprises of presidium of“Chinese Plant Extract Industry Strategic Alliance”, certified by NSF-cGMP, and the constitutor of Monk Fruit Extract industry standard. Huachengbio has established a perfect quality management system,and obtained many international authorized certificates, such as BRC, NSF-cGMP, Non-GMO project , FDA-GRAS, ORGANIC, ISO9001, ISO22000(HACCP), QS, TUV, KOSHER, and HALAL. Huachengbio is the global first and only enterprise obtained USDA ORGANIC certificate.
Huachengbio owns 3 manufacturing bases: our total Capacity is 240MT/year of Mogroside V 50%, is the global largest Monk Fruit manufacturer.